Restaurants play a significant role in food waste, collectively generating around 33 billion pounds annually. With each restaurant contributing between 25,000 to 75,000 pounds per year, it is imperative to address this issue particularly within the foodservice industry.
This enormous amount of discarded food, mostly edible and nutritious, poses grave environmental consequences, consuming vast amounts of fertilizer, cropland, and freshwater. Moreover, food waste constitutes the largest component in landfills globally, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 37 million cars in the U.S. alone, making it a major driver of climate change.Keeping food waste at top of mind can have a profound impact on our behaviors and help us all waste a lot less. Waring implores us to create a path towards a more sustainable future by inspiring change within the culinary community. Think about your culinary equipment as a system to create, rather than as individual items with a single purpose. Versatile product sets promote efficiency and provide solutions that will inspire change. Through alternative thinking and new processes, we can implement actions that will measurably reduce food waste and provide inspiration for new ingredients and dishes. The system is the solution!
Check out the Waring solutions you can use to utilize your ingredients more efficiently:
Blender
Blend, mix, and combine excess food scraps to create menu staples such as dressings, soups, and smoothies. Not only that, but you can also make herb-infused oils, butters, sauces, jams, and other interesting recipes that will be sure to add a wow factor to your menu with their uniqueness. Waring blenders are renowned for their powerful performance and durability, making them staples in commercial kitchens.
Create custom-flavored waffles and toppings with unexpected ingredients to pleasantly surprise your guests. Waffle-makers can be great for a lot more than just waffles, and can transform your leftovers into crunchy, handheld snacks. Whether it’s leftover mac and cheese or shredded potatoes, there are so many leftovers you can throw in the waffle-maker to give them a delicious second chance.
Dehydrator
Dehydrators are great for drying and preserving surplus foods, extending their shelf life for future use in recipes or snacks and offering a sustainable solution to prevent waste. Not only that, but dried food makes for great additions of unique texture and flavor to drinks, meals and desserts. Dehydrating excess food also allows for bulk purchases without concerns of spoilage and can be a cost-effective alternative to buying pre-made dried foods. By dehydrating perishable items nearing expiration, such as fruits, vegetables, and meats, and adjusting purchasing habits, significant reductions in kitchen waste can be achieved.
Juicer
Juice past-their-prime product that's full of nutrients and turn pulp into profits. Fruits and vegetables are some of the most wasted foods on the planet. Produce is good to buy in bulk for less packaging and lower prices and with a juicer, you don't have to worry about any of it going to waste. You can just your leftover produce to serve on its own or incorporate fresh yummy juices into cocktails and other recipes.
Waring urges us to rethink culinary equipment to reduce waste and inspire innovation. By utilizing products like blenders, waffle-makers, dehydrators, and juicers to repurpose surplus ingredients, we can contribute to a more sustainable future while delighting customers with inventive offerings.