How do you prevent food waste at your event?

Globally, one third of our food is lost through food waste. In the Netherlands too, we throw away billions of euros worth of perfectly usable food every year. A real shame! Here is how you can prevent too much food from ending up in the trash at your event.

Catering is an important but tricky part of many events. You want your guests to want for nothing, but at the same time, you don't want to produce unnecessary waste. From a sustainability standpoint, but also because it saves you a lot of costs. To keep food waste at your event to a minimum, it is therefore advisable to make clear arrangements in advance and determine numbers together with the caterer and/or venue.

No show

Unfortunately, with any event, you always have to deal with no-shows. If you notice that you always have food left over because of this, you could take a gamble and order slightly less from your caterer. While you usually cannot cancel ordered food on the day itself, caterers often offer the possibility to adjust numbers a week in advance. By clearly communicating a sustainable message to guests and asking them to let you know in time if they can attend, no-shows can be limited beforehand.

Presentation

Think about how you serve or present the food. Sandwiches left on a buffet for a long time dry out and start to look less and less appetizing. A good alternative is live cooking. With this, you don't waste food because you only make something when there is a demand for it. It also provides an extra experience for your visitors.

Foodie bags

You can also let guests take the leftover food home in (paper) containers or bags. Instead of a doggy bag, you can offer a foodie bag – in which guests can take home nice dishes themselves at the end of the event. Prefer no foodie bag for your visitors? Then you might make your crew very happy with them after a long day of work. code:

Dit bericht bekijken op Instagram

If you took a packed lunch to work, it’s estimated that over an average working career you would save over £50,000 and 10’s of thousands of sandwich wrappers, crisp packets, drinks bottles, napkins, single use cutlery and condiments from going to landfill! Our reusable lunch bags, from WAKEcup, are insulated to keep food fresh, perfect for work or school meals, there’s also a little pocket to leave a note for your loved ones ? . . . . . .#foodwaste #zerowasteuk #greenhome #zerowastefood #waronwaste #lowwasteliving #zerowaste #intentionalliving #zerowastejourney #wastefree #ecohome #zerowastehome #lesswasteevent #wastefreeliving #zerowasteliving #greenkitchen #goingzerowaste #lesswaste #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastelife #minimalwaste #zerowastekitchen #nowaste #zerowasteshopping #zerowastetips #vegan #plantbasedlife #plantbasedlifestyle #ukvegans

Een bericht gedeeld door Wearth London (@wearthlondon) op 6 Dec 2019 om 4:01 (PST)

Great initiatives

To combat food waste, more and more great initiatives are emerging. If you want to handle food waste consciously at your event, you can easily do so with these inspiring initiatives, for example:

• Choose a no-waste supplier For example, with the InStock food truck. With multiple restaurants, InStock literally and figuratively puts food waste on the map. An electric rescue cart picks up unsold products from local suppliers, which the InStock chefs use to prepare the most delicious dishes. InStock also produces its own beer and granola and has released a cookbook.

• Make your product range responsible Leave the standard drinks behind and choose Thijstea, for example, a fresh iced tea made with organic tea and 'second-hand' fruit. The fresh fruit used to make this drink was actually labeled as waste, simply because it is crooked, misshapen, or ugly, and thus does not meet the standards of shops and consumers.

• Choose a sustainable caterer DeBorrelFabriek, for example, has set up its own Love Food, Fight Waste program and has developed all kinds of creative and circular concepts for this purpose. Think of making their own 'Borreltje' distilled from leftover wines. Leftover vegetables from events are fermented and reused as pickles and Kimchi at a subsequent event. And ready-made meals are offered in the Too good to go app, where people can pick up a fresh meal for a small contribution.

Are you looking for a unique location for your corporate event? Theater Amsterdam offers many possibilities. Feel free to contact us.