Waste not, want not

From big brands like Nando’s to up-and-coming disruptors like Silo, there is a growing awareness across the sector that it’s not only the bottom line that’s affected by throwing away surplus food – it is increasingly important for consumers to identify with brand values that align with their own.

For Nando’s, reducing food waste is a part of a series of targets designed to get Britain’s biggest restaurant brand to net zero. For zero waste pioneer Silo, it means a back to basics food system which the makes the most of offcuts and compost.

Meanwhile, suppliers such as Too Good To Go are connecting consumers with businesses to buy food that would have been wasted, while Winnow Solutions is taking an AI-based approach to help chefs tailor production and waste less in the first place.

And organisations like Zero Carbon Forum, a non-profit catering to hospitality businesses, are advising hospitality businesses on setting and achieving targets.

With insights from innovators in the space, MCA takes a look at the different ways brands are dealing with surplus food.

‘No chickening out’

For Nando’s – the sustainability prize winners at MCA’s Retailers’ Retailer Awards this year – food waste isn’t inevitable. Since 2013, any cooked chicken that remains unsold at the end of the day is donated as part of the ‘No Chucking Our Chicken’ programme.

Furthermore, curative measures aren’t enough for Nando’s. To reduce food waste, the brand cooks chicken only when needed.

“We interpret [sustainability] our own way,” Sam McCarthy, head of sustainability, tells MCA. “Our founders sent us on a journey 30 years ago in the UK. We want to say we are doing things for the right reasons – not for the bottom line or for efficiency.”

The brand achieved carbon neutral status for all its meals, sauce bottles, and deliveries in November 2021, and aims to become a net zero carbon business by 2030. McCarthy and Nando’s head of food Tim Molema both believe sustainability is an opportunity for the brand to show leadership.

The company works with the Zero Carbon Forum and has been awarded 3 stars (the top restaurant rating) from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. It also embraced its South African origins by backing sustainability projects based in the country, as well as other nations in Southern and East Africa.

Less commonly known is their work with waste partners and suppliers to help them achieve targets and ensure sustainability is incorporated at every stage, from sourcing ingredients to disposing of them.

“It’s about how smaller players can not only learn from us, but also learn from our mistakes,” McCarthy explains.

On the other end of the spectrum is Douglas McMaster, the founder and chef behind the pioneering restaurant Silo. He began the concept in Australia in 2011 when friend and artist Joost Bakker suggested the idea of a restaurant that didn’t have a bin.

“It’s the most profound abstract thing anyone could’ve said to me,” McMaster declares. “I carried forward his vision and added my own visions within a vision.”

McMaster initially launched Silo in the UK in Brighton, before relocating to London’s Hackney Wick. It is now credited as the pioneer of the zero-waste movement, back when few people knew what zero waste meant. As McMaster says, Silo was “fighting a battle that no one even understood.”

The brand’s butchers follow a regenerative farming system. It has a facility to process glass waste, while any plastic waste is donated to be upcycled. At restaurants, they project the menu onto the wall rather than printing it out. The milk is delivered in a stainless steel pail. McMaster terms it “pre-industrial.”

“We’re adopting that system in a modern way, in our trendy East London spot,” he says. “The environment decides our menu. That’s a very profound thing to say…but it’s designing from nature, designing from the environment.”

Creating a sustainable menu

Nando’s curates its menu with a similar approach. Sustainable ingredients are turned into sustainable menu items during a constant process of menu development. Nando’s plans to launch a range of new products in early 2023, but for a brand known for its chicken, this is a complex process.

“It’s a question of how do we play in that space without losing our brand identity,” Molema says. “Food, taste, and quality come first – it has to be commercially viable. But it also has to tick the sustainability box.”

The balance between profitability and sustainability is a tricky one, but Nando’s believes they’ve found it. They launched their first vegan burger in January and introduced a vegan version of the ever-popular garlic perinaise. Potential items won’t make it to the menu unless they tick the sustainability box.

“This is where we want to go as a business,” Molema declares. “If it’s not sustainable, we won’t take it any further even if it may be delicious.”

The menu innovation process recently kicked back into gear as the brand recovers from two years of multiple lockdowns. From a sustainability perspective, McCarthy values the pandemic for allowing the brand to take a closer look at its ideals.

“The pandemic allowed us to think about what we wanted to be known for.”

Meanwhile, the Silo menu is curated with not only sustainable but also seasonal, locally available ingredients in mind. McMaster’s approach to sustainability involves granular attention to detail, like using biodegradable sous vide bags instead of single-use plastic and buying loose vegetables instead of packaged.

He names other brands following suit, like Discarded Spirits – which creates drinks out of waste ingredients – and Oddbox, which delivers misshapen produce that would have otherwise gone to waste. He hopes everybody in the sector will do their bit.

“Everyone could be better – even us.”

The climate crisis has caused these development processes to change significantly. According to Molema, it was a much more isolated process before sustainability became a major facet of it.

“Everyone would be squirrelled away in their own development kitchens. There’s still development going on, but now we’re talking to each other,” he says.

“It’s about how do we learn from each other, how do we collectively move forward.”

The company achieved carbon neutrality in November 2021. While sustainability was a focus before the pandemic, it was in 2021 that Nando’s announced its goal of becoming net zero by 2030.

“We might not make the same decisions as other companies at the same time,” Molema says. “We try to make sure we have the most impact with our decisions.”

“We did it the Nando’s way, which is usually the hard way,” McCarthy adds.

Working on the top line – and the bottom line

Nando’s, along with other industry giants like Wetherspoons, Burger King, and The Restaurant Group, works with the Zero Carbon Forum. Founder and CEO Mark Chapman, like McMaster, was ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability in hospitality.

Chapman set up a fledgling organisation to help operators measure and reduce carbon emissions in 2010. The project grew to become Zero Carbon Forum, which supports operators on their journey to net zero by helping them set targets and structure roadmaps across packaging, farming, supply chains, and other impact areas.

“The industry has been collaborating on this for a very long time,” Chapman explains. “There was a massive shift in the last two to three years. It was hard to engage for a long time.”

Chapman credits Nando’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s as businesses showing leadership both in the UK and globally, citing McDonald’s removal of plastic toys from Happy Meals and Nando’s view of carbon neutrality as a step towards net zero, rather than carbon neutrality as a goal in itself.

Chapman suggests brands look at everything from supply chains and preparation waste to menu rotation and portion size reduction to combat food waste.

“You need to understand that map and who’s involved in every part of that,” Chapman says. “We have a responsibility to act. It’s just not OK to be wasteful.”

One problem, two solutions

Two suppliers innovating in the food waste reduction space are Too Good To Go (TGTG) and Winnow Solutions. The former is a curative measure while the latter focuses on prevention.

TGTG is a platform with 8.5 million city dwellers in five countries, with 19,000 businesses offering ‘magic bags’ of heavily discounted treats.

Magic bags are filled with the day’s leftover food and sold to customers at reduced prices to fight food waste. The app calls itself the world’s largest B2C market for surplus food.

Winnow, on the other hand, is an AI-based solution that helps commercial kitchens reduce their food waste by a tablet that measures the weight of disposed food and provides reports to help chefs tailor production.

According to marketing manager Maria Sanu, this helps chefs decide which suppliers help them reduce food waste and how staff can be trained to improve on preparation. Operations teams offer insight on prevention and work with clients like the Compass Group and IKEA sites, while TGTG caters to primarily QSR.

While Winnow looks at prevention as the most environmentally friendly approach, it recognises solutions like TGTG are valuable in reducing wastage.

“We’re ensuring edible food is eaten and enjoyed,” says Jamie Crummie, TGTG co-founder and director. “There are many operators innovating within this space…I look to [TGTG] partners like LEON who are redistributing food through the platform several times a day.”

“We collaborate with our partners to ensure any of their edible food surplus can go towards feeding bellies instead of feeding bins.”

TGTG’s initiatives include the app itself alongside other projects, like the ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ campaign that encourages a change in packaging and educates consumers on assessing ‘best before’ labels.

When it comes to businesses, Crummie, like Chapman, thinks sustainability efforts benefit the brand both in terms of customer retention and acquisition.

“It helps with employee engagement too. Nobody likes to throw away food, especially food you’ve been working on all day.”

The organisation also aims to teach food waste in schools and spark policy change. Crummie explains that UK laws place emphasis on legislation against plastic pollution but have “a lack of legally binding targets targeting food waste reduction.”

“Why is it that we have reduction targets for some areas of sustainability but not when we look at our food system?”

Food waste is just one strand of sustainability, a term that can man many things to different people. Yet as Chapman concludes, the benefits are clear.

As he explains, there are multiple upsides for operators placing emphasis on sustainability – including the bottom line.

“You’ll protect your bottom line and grow your top line…[consumers] expect companies to be on this,” he adds.

“You’ll make your supply chain more resilient, because you’ll know where it’s coming from.”