Food Waste at Dish Food and Social:
As a food service business, we recognise our responsibility to minimise the amount of food that we waste, and to dispose properly of all our organic waste - food that is no longer safe to eat, and inedible parts of food products.
Our ‘Food Waste Hierarchy’ is described below:
Reduce the amount (volume, weight) of edible food we discard:
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Through better management of portion sizes to reduce plate waste.
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Ensure we do not take excess food on site beyond what we will need for an event.
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Maintaining the cold chain for excess food that has not been served so it may be reused/donated.
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Efficiency in the kitchen – make sure that we get the most out of every product we use. This includes cutting as close to the ends of vegetables as possible, and not leaving meat on bones etc.
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Using every part of every ingredient as far as possible to minimise foods that would typically be discarded.
Reuse/repurpose by:
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Creatively Using surplus produce from dishes as inputs for others.
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Preserving excess fruits and vegetables by pickling/fermenting or adding value by making chutneys/jams before excess produce needs to be discarded. These can be used as ingredients for recipes, or served alongside dishes as condiments.
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Repurposing excess edible food that has not been served to use for staff meals.
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Donating excess edible foods to a local shelter.
Recycling/discarding:
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All the inedible food and other organic waste we need to discard is separated from other waste streams and disposed of responsibly.
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We use Bokashi to treat this waste on site, where organic waste is kept in sealed bins and collected weekly by our organic waste contractor Urban Farms Recycling.
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Urban Farms take these bins to their facility and recycle this waste into compost, and further, vermicast.