News
Waste figures lunch meetings and office drinks
At banqueting (pre-ordered catering for meetings and events), 21% of the food is not eaten. At coffee meetings and company drinks, over 40% of the drinks offered are not consumed.
The survey is part of an initiative aimed at charting total food waste in catering by the foundation Food Waste Free United and Veneca which is being conducted by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) based on self-reporting by eight caterers.
The participating caterers are Albron, Appél, Compass Group, Food&I (stakeholder), Hutten, Sodexo, Vermaat and Vitam. With the exception of Vermaat, all are members of Veneca. They took measurements at 575 events at a total of 39 venues, involving 7,500 kilos of food for around 7,000 guests.
Lunch sandwiches and drinks often left over
At pre-ordered lunches, there was particular wastage in sandwiches and drinks. In the Netherlands, bread is still the most commonly ordered item for lunch, so it makes sense that it’s also what is most often left over: 20% of sandwiches go uneaten. Of all the wasted lunch items, 34% consisted of drinks.Interestingly, when only tea, coffee and water are served at lunch, nearly half is left over.
In grams, this means that an average 127 grams of food per person were wasted. That is equivalent to a cheese roll. For drinks, this is 93 grams, for example a small cup of coffee.
Bitterballen left over, not cake
Logically, most of the products left over at coffee and drinks gatherings are drinks. During coffee breaks, 44% of the drinks are wasted. At drinks receptions, this is around 37%. It should be noted here that beverages from drinks receptions can mostly be reused (if the bottles are unopened). 8% of the appetiser snacks are left over. Interestingly, no cakes were wasted at special events involving cake (unlike when cake and biscuits are served during general coffee breaks).
At coffee gatherings, an average of 13 grams of food is wasted and 168 grams of drink per person: about a large cup of coffee with a biscuit. At drinks receptions, this is 19 grams of food and 318 grams of drink per person: a beer and a bitterbal.
Working on solutions
On Monday 9 September, the caterers met to discuss the results of the survey and consider possible solutions. Veneca: "Our caterers take great care with the products served, so the last thing they want is for it to be wasted. One of the causes is no show. This means that we need to have an even better conversation with our customers about what they expect in terms of numbers but also the type of guests they expect."