Plate waste is any food wasted direct from plate or to-go box. Use our helpful tips to reduce plate waste in your establishment...What Plate Waste Is and What To Do About It

Food waste in restaurants, cafes, bakeries and takeaways can be attributed to many areas - from ingredients, pre-prepared meals and even from plates. But what is plate waste, and what can you do to reduce waste on plates?

What is plate waste?

Plate waste is any food wasted direct from plate or to-go box. It can be an indication of overly-large portions (or simply over-ordering).

Plate waste makes up a total of 41% of food waste in canteens, according to the EPA’s Food Waste in Canteens Fact Sheet. 38% of food waste from the typical Irish food service establishment is attributed to plate waste. So, plate waste is a real problem.

What can you do about plate waste?

Plate waste is a complex issue. If you’re passionate about reducing food waste and making the most of your resources, you may be up to the challenge of trying to figure out the main reasons your customers are leaving food on their plate. Your first step is to keep an eye on which dishes seem to come back to your kitchen half-eaten and try to figure out why - perhaps the accompaniment isn’t to everyone’s taste or maybe your portion is just too big!

Once you’ve figured it out, you can try the following to tips to take a bite out plate waste.

​​Write a children’s menu

Whether you have a huge amount of child diners or very few, having a kids menu on-hand and accounted for can be invaluable. Kids have much smaller appetites and are perhaps less likely to enjoy your side of soy-orange crispy kale. In short, kids menu equals less plate waste when it comes to little ones!

Offer portion options

A study carried out by Love Food Hate Waste showed that 41% of plate waste occurs because the portion was too big.

As a restauranteur, you don’t want to leave your diners hungry yet you don’t want the food you’ve put resources into going to waste. By offering two sizes of each dish at reasonable price points, you give your consumers the power to choose for themselves. 

By making these portion sizes clear on your menu and training your staff in how to appropriately mention the two options, you are well on your way to clean plates and expertly-filled bellies.

Offer a choice of sides

If you find that it is your colcannon champ mash or your side of soba noodles coming back to the kitchen, it may be worthwhile to give your customer a choice of sides.

Side salads and chips are the two foods left on plates most often. Many diners simply see these as ‘plate fillers’ - and therefore less valuable - compared to the food they ‘actually ordered’.

When you offer your diners a choice of their side or sides, you can rest knowing they’ve chosen something they enjoy and they are much more likely to eat it!

Train staff to be proactive about offering doggy bags

In some cultures, it’s commonplace to offer a doggy bag if you see that your diner has not finished their meal and in Ireland, it wouldn’t hurt us to be more proactive about it.

Too Good To Go recently discovered that 23% of UK adults are embarrassed to ask for a doggy bag - even if they want one.