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Reduce business food waste

Food businesses in NSW throw away around 30% of their food.

The Australian Government's research into food waste shows that:

  • Food waste in Australia costs the economy around $36.6 billion each year.
  • Australia wastes around 7.6 million tonnes of food across the supply and consumption chain each year: this equates to about 312kg per person.

Food waste occurs when you buy, store, and prepare food, through to leftovers on customers’ plates. This wastes food, staff time and money.

You can avoid most food waste in business by:

  • managing your stock: work closely with your supplier, only order what you need, and buy seasonal produce
  • storing your food correctly: rotate stock, store it as soon as it’s delivered, and store it at the right temperature
  • designing the right menu: understand your menu and know what sells, and buy food that you can use across a range of meals
  • watching portion sizes and offering side dishes as an option.

Take action to reduce waste

The three types of waste that occurs in a food business are: spoilage, preparation waste and plate waste.

The good news is you can make simple changes in your business to reduce the amount of food you throw away.

You can reduce the amount of food waste your business throws away by following three steps:

  1. Do a food waste review: Council can work with your business to carry out a food waste review to find out where your business is wasting food. A food waste review includes:
    • a review of your stock, processes, and waste streams
    • an audit of your business waste.
  2. Develop an action plan: After the review, we can help you to prepare a three-step action plan to reduce your food waste. These actions can help your business:
    • save money on food and waste disposal
    • reduce food waste-related operation costs
    • divert food waste from landfill. Food waste in landfill produces greenhouse gases which damage our environment.
  3. Celebrate your business’ success: Do a follow-up review to measure how much your business has reduced its food waste. You can then share the results with your staff and celebrate.

  • If your business has leftover food, consider donating it to a local food recovery charity to help people in our community that are doing it tough. The charity can collect the food and distribute it to those who need it the most.
  • Business food donors are protected under the Civil Liability Act 2002 (the Act). The Act limits businesses’ liability, providing they meet certain food safety conditions.
  • Composting and worm farming are natural ways of recycling - food scraps break down into nutrient-rich compost for your gardens or plants. They also divert organic waste from going into landfill.
  • Council hosts free workshops to help Eurobodalla businesses start composting or worm farming.

More information

Your Business is Food Program is part of the NSW EPA’s Love Food Hate Waste Program.

The free support program aims to help businesses waste less food and improve profits.  The program provides simple steps and handy resources to:

  • avoid food waste
  • educate staff and customers
  • promote your business.

Join the program

Sign-up to Your Business is Food to receive:

  • a free toolkit with resources to engage your staff and customers, and encourage a more positive approach to food waste
  • guidance from the NSW EPA to review and find out where, and how much, food your business is wasting
  • suggestions and simple steps your business can take to help reduce its food waste.

After six weeks of taking part in the program, you’ll need to do a follow-up review to measure how much your business has reduced its food waste.

Program resources

To find out more about the program, check out these NSW Government Love Food Hate Waste resources:

How a Eurobodalla business reduced its food waste

Since starting Your Business is Food, Food Mantra by Wildfire has reduced its food waste by 32 kilograms a week. The business:

  • reviewed their food waste to track and measure the source
  • developed a plan to reduce this waste by:
    • engaging its staff and customers with resources to encourage them to reduce waste
    • reminding customers they can remove unwanted items from their meals - like chips or salad
    • using reusable containers for uneaten food
    • tailoring specific parts of their menu to minimise food waste.

We can help you

If you have questions about these programs or initiatives, contact Council's Sustainability Education Officer, Alexandra King: