Roughly one-third of the food produced for consumption globally is still wasted. This number accounts for 680 billion US dollars of food waste in industrialized countries and 310 billion US dollars in developing countries. 40 to 50 percent of this waste consists of root crops and fruits, 20 percent consists of oilseeds, meats and dairy, and more than 30 percent consists of fish. These percentages present the average of the world, but differ per country (UN Environment, n.d.). In the Netherlands food waste is roughly one-fourth of the produced food for consumption, which is an average of 105 to 152 kilograms in food per capita per year (Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling, 2020). It is important to realize that by wasting all this food, you do not only throw away the nutritious value of these products, but also all of the resources such as water and energy that are used to make the products.

This roadmap is created as an addition to your initial restaurant concept. It is a guide on how you can battle food waste in your restaurant, to become a more sustainable restaurant and with that contribute to a better world, and while doing this you can even save money. It is explicitly designed for an à la carte restaurant. An average à la carte restaurant in the Netherlands wastes between 15 and 25% of the food (Orbisk, 2021). With this roadmap we aim to decrease this to 5%. By achieving this goal, you save an average of 20-40 kilograms of food per day, 3-6 percent on your total costs and you emit 40-80 kilograms less CO2 per day.