The industry produces 85,600 tonnes of food waste a year, costing about £166 million.
Almost 75% of the waste could be avoided if it had been better portioned, stored and prepared, says WRAP, an organisation which promotes recycling.
About a fifth (21%) of food waste is the result of spoiling, 45% is wasted during preparation and 34% from consumer’s plates.
Carbohydrates including bread, potatoes, pasta and rice account for around 40% of food waste.
The report from WRAP, Overview of waste in the UK hospitality and food service sector, looks at the cost and impact associated with food purchase and waste management.
In Scotland the total annual waste including food, packaging and other waste produced across the sector is 266,200 tonnes. Of this, 45% is recycled, sent to anaerobic digestion or composted.
New rules mean businesses in Scotland will have to recycle more from January 1.
Under the Waste (Scotland) Regulations, all organisations are required to separate paper, card, glass, plastic, and metal for recycling.
Many organisations which produce or sell food will also have to recycle their food waste.
Director of Zero Waste Scotland Iain Gulland said: “New regulations in Scotland mean most hospitality operators will have to recycle their food waste from January – but there are bigger financial savings to be made from reducing food waste in the first place.
“Today’s report gives the fullest picture of the scale of that opportunity and outlines practical ways the industry can reduce waste. By understanding how and why food waste is created in their operations, organisations can take action to reduce waste and save money.”
A total of 22 Scottish-based organisations have signed up to the Hospitality and Food Service Agreement, a UK-wide voluntary agreement to reduce waste.
They have pledged to reduce food and packaging waste by 5% by the end of 2015 and increase the amount of food and packaging waste being recycled, sent to anaerobic digestion or composted to at least 70%.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “Food waste is a global challenge which all of us have a responsibility to address – this applies in both the public and private sectors.
“We’ve already done a lot to drive both the recycling and prevention of food waste, with last year’s campaign and £20 million investment in food waste collection.
“This report highlights that there are areas where we need to focus attention to achieve the greatest benefit – this will be important both for our continuing work through the Hospitality and Food Service Agreement and for the support provided to public sector organisations by Resource Efficient Scotland.
“Our new waste regulations will also be another key step in the recycling of food waste.”
Source: http://www.heraldscotland.com
About the Author: 
Food wastage is one of the biggest problems from 21 century. The population is increasing day by day and there are regions in the world where starving still represents a surviving matter. Meanwhile, in other parts, the food is wasting in huge quantities and nobody cares about it. And the main sector which is responsible for this is the Hospitality through the many F&B outlets. A must decision to be taken very soon, is reducing the food waste, which can also save many costs.
Primarily, food wastage is the question of appropriate controlling measurements. For example: recycling, reusable content of products. Absence of the wastage reducing methods leads to a loss of considerable amount of an income, as on an example of Scotland. In my opinion, a first step made by Scotland is a first step on a right way.
Unfortunately, food wastage is a global problem that has to be solved soon. I think, the UK is on a good way of solving this problem, though I am sure it will not be easy for the restaurants and hotels to get use to the new customs.
I really hope that the new program created by Zero Waste Scotland will improve the situation and decrease food wastage. It is a huge problem and not just in Scotland, but all around the world. While some countries have such a great amount of food wasted, there is a number of those countries where people are starving. Instead of spending so much money on wasted food isn’t it better to help poor countries and save people’s lives.
Nowadays, high amount of food wasting is a major problems in the world.
Most of the developed countries facing and trying to find solution for this problem, especially in Asia.
In my opinion, the result can be a example for other country to evaluate their problems and find out that how serious this problem is.
Food waste is one of the biggest issues in the world right now. It doesn‘t only affect the hospitality industry, but it affects everyone, every day globally. There are a lot of ways to stop food wasting, however, people are still not interested enough to solve this problem. It is a good sign though, that at least some hotels figured out that in order to cut costs they have reduce food waste first.
Food waste is one of the biggest major issues which entire
world is facing nowadays especially the third world countries from Africa.
Unfortunately, this problem is affecting every industry, including hospitality
industry. But organizations such as FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations) are developing a lot of programs to solve this.
Food waste is very major issue these days in hotel industry. They are wasting lots of revenue by wasting food. By wasting food we are even wasting natural resources. Already global warming is effecting world. So we should try to stop to waste and and our resources. I think there are organisations are there who helping in control of wasting of food.
Food wasting problem is everywhere from normal household to big business. Hospitality is the worst place if you are against wasting food. Luckily, it have been noticed recently and is being taken care seriously. if you think about thousand of people do not have enough food to eat in the world and you see the way they treat food in hospitality. It would hurt you badly.
Last week WRAP was telling us we were throwing out around six meals/week. Now they’re offering food premises an opportunity to serve up smaller portions, but no mention of the possibility of reduced charges. Somebody needs to look at what this Quango (WRAP) costs and what actual benefit it provides. Most of the increased waste recycling achieved in Scotland over the last decade was due to the Councils, not WRAP. And as usual nobody has thought to ask the Environmental Health profession for their input. They’re only responsible for the public health aspects of food production after all.
There are 925 million people hungry every year which just shows that there is a big need to save food therefore we should not look at the figures which we are losing but we should see the figures relating to the people who are without food in this world. therefore i totally agree with this article as its making people aware of the food waste.
These new rules will definitely help saving cost. Furthermore increasing waste by applying new concepts will increase the reputation since nowadays costumers started to judge hotels and restaurant on their environmental performance
Waste problem is a serious problem that the industry is now facing. There are the problem of poverty all over the world. Therefore, new rules are neccessary to reduce the food cost.