Growth and Food Waste
China is feeding the biggest population in the world and consequently due to this growth the country is generating more food waste than any other nation.
The total amount of food both lost and wasted in China is equivalent to feeding more than 50 million people. So, how is China dealing with the issue? In Changxing County, WWF and Winnow teamed to help the hospitality sector manage and reduce their food wastage.
Common Trends
In 2015, China wasted roughly 17 to 18 million tonnes of food served in big cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Lhasa) as stated by the China Daily. vegetables top the list of food waste identified and accounts for as much as 29% of the total amount.
Opportunities
The positives that food waste is one of the greatest opportunities for hotels to save costs, whilst helping the environment. With the hospitality industry in the region becoming increasingly aware of this, F&B is also playing an increasingly important role in a hotel’s value proposition. This is due to opportunities created to use technology to reduce food costs by preventing waste, which can no longer be ignored.
In Changxing County in the north of Zhejiang Province, WWF teamed up with Winnow to pilot a project aiming at building awareness and cutting food waste in five hotels. WWF, the world’s leading conservation organization, is currently present in 100 countries and supported by more than five million members globally. Within the WWF’s Hotel Kitchen Report, Winnow’s cutting edge technology was chosen as a solution to effectively reduce food waste in commercial kitchens.
Regional Impact
With a population of over 630,000 citizens, Changxing County was selected by WWF for being renowned for its green initiatives. Recently, the county was recognized as the top National Civilized City, due to its positive environmental impacts. The pilot of Winnow technology includes a 13-week food waste measurement phase which uses Winnow’s tools to help the hotels accurately track their over-production and food-waste. In addition, the Winnow reports provide the site with insightful data to identify ways of improving production planning and identify menu engineering opportunities.
Winnow and China - Hospitality
In addition to financial savings, reducing food waste in hotels also enhances sustainable practices for each site. Sofitel Kunming is working with Winnow to prevent food waste, and the property has already cut waste by 50%, saving over 133,000 RMB, and avoiding 20 tonnes of CO2 in the process from being released into the atmosphere. This is equivalent to a total of51 miles driven by an average passenger car. We would encourage all Chinese operators to see food waste as an opportunity to significantly cut costs, whilst also contributing to China’s sustainability journey.
Looking forward
Winnow is looking forward to working with the Chinese government, industry players, and WWF to systematically reduce food waste in the hotel industry and help China to establish and practice green patterns of production and consumption.
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