Food Waste Challenge

After several years of conducting many internal food waste related projects, we decided to team up with a number of stakeholders to fight food waste in the hospitality industry on a national level. We formed a partnership with the initiator of the Food Waste Challenge (FWC), the Rabobank along with the Dutch Nutrition Centre and a technology company, Waste Watchers. There were 172 restaurants participating in the FWC. Hotelschool The Hague had 45 students (40 second year students and 5 Bachelor thesis student) involved in the project. It entailed measuring and recording the food waste at selected restaurants as well as designing and implementing interventions to reduce food waste at the participating outlets. The results were presented at the Horecava in 2020 by the Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer and vice-prime minister Carola Schouten. They showed a 21% decrease in food waste across the establishments with valid measurements. More information about the FWC are captured in this article in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.