A chef preparing food in a kitchen

The cost of food waste from the UK hospitality and food service sector was estimated at over £3.2 billion in 2018.

The equivalent of 106 million meals are discarded every year in Scotland - that’s one out of every six meals served. As part of the Scottish Government climate change plan, we are committed to an ambitious target of reducing Scotland’s food waste by 33% by 2025. 

Most businesses do not realise how much food is being wasted, or how much it is costing their business.  Our comprehensive guide on how to reduce food waste in the hospitality and food service sector aims to provide you with some more ideas. 

Hospitality and Food Service

Support for hospitality and food service

Our advice and support service can offer sector specific guidance, tools and ongoing support as you embark on your food waste reduction journey. 

To start reducing your food waste today, use our monitoring and measuring resources to manage food waste within your business, access our guide.

Good to Go

The Zero Waste Scotland Good to Go Doggy Bag initiative has been developed to change the culture around leftovers and save food from the bin by giving customers an easy way to take uneaten food home.

Find out more and order your free starter pack.

Good to Go

Guidance on reducing food waste

How to reduce food waste in the hospitality and food service sector

You will already be doing a lot to prevent waste.  Our comprehensive guide on how to reduce food waste in the hospitality and food service sector aims to provide you with some more ideas. We’ll guide you through your very own food waste revolution. 

Download our guide on how to reduce food waste in the hospitality and food service sector.

Although food waste prevention at source should be the key priority, food redistribution is an alternative if you find yourself in a position with surplus food. Companies, charities and individuals can all benefit from the redistribution of surplus food.

Zero Waste Scotland has developed a Food Redistribution Guidance Document in conjunction with Food Standards Scotland to tell you all you need to know about how to redistribute surplus food including food safety considerations and how to identify surplus food.

Working with WRAP, Zero Waste Scotland have developed a Redistribution Framework which helps organisations increase volumes of food redistributed in the UK. The Redistribution Framework is intended to help individual providers and recipients to adopt or adapt their own processes and choices for handling surplus, to fit with existing ways of working, while making it easier for multiple organisations to work with each other.