Fox Resorts Presents: A Hotelier’s Guide to Reducing Food Waste

Fox Resorts shares tips on reducing food waste to commemorate International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste

Fox Resorts is a luxury boutique chain of hotels that is committed to contributing to the sustainable well-being of people, society, and our Planet Earth. As we commemorate International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, here are some tips and techniques to reduce food waste that are practiced in our resorts, that can be adopted, in your own home, based on hospitality industry best practices.

Stick to your shopping list! It is said that the worst time to go grocery shopping is when you’re hungry. Everything on the shelf suddenly seems enticing until you get home and realize you don’t need half the goodies you’ve bought.  My tip?  Stick to your shopping list and hit the grocery store after you’ve had your lunch! Remember, keeping to your list saves food and saves money.

Make sure you use up your groceries. Take a cue from every good accountant, and adopt the FIFO method of inventory management: first in, first out, using older products first and the newer ones second. Stack your food in a way that you keep the older products ahead of the newer ones. This can prevent your having to throw out soon-to-expire products at the back of the shelves. Look through your pantry cupboards regularly, and before you go shopping, to remind you what you have – it’s a great way to make your shopping list smaller, as well. The same goes for your freezer, where spending a few minutes checking stock will ensure your frozen items get used and not forgotten.

Use your leftovers.  Food remaining on plates, or food that you just know won’t be consumed, can be collected and put out for community animals –these could be birds, crows, squirrels, or stray cats and dogs. Do remember that feedings should be done in a safe space where the animals can consume the food away from speeding cars and angry neighbors. Please clean up any remaining food and serving papers or bowls to ensure the practice doesn’t result in a different form of environmental pollution.

Compost your waste for thriving plants.  Kitchen waste (vegetable peels, bones, etc.) can easily be composted for garden fertilizers. To speed up the decomposition, use a compost bin, readily available in garden and hardware stores. By composting food waste, you contribute to the circular economy, ensuring all forms of creation in your possession are gainfully utilized or flow back into the biosphere rather than simply discarded.

Freeze your excess food for a snack down the road. If you have a lot of excess food after a meal, and you don’t like eating the same food two days in a row, freeze the excess in separate containers for a treat on a later date. When packing food for freezing, make a mental plan for how you will consume it, and divide it up into containers accordingly.

Learn to love your leftovers. Tossing out leftover food is a mistake. Some food, like curries or pizza, can taste even better a day later! Keep in mind, it is vital to store leftover food properly in the refrigerator. Hot, humid climates and cooked food are extremely inviting to bacteria. To ensure no one gets sick, refrigerate your leftovers as appropriate.

Party leftovers in large quantities can be boxed up in small portions and given to your own guests to enjoy the next day, or you can foster some neighbourly relations and distribute them among your neighbours. If you have enough, please consider sending them to your neighborhood orphanage or any other needy people in your area. If the food is being sent at a later time or the next day, please ensure that they are stored appropriately to avoid contamination.

You can always find creative ways to spruce up your leftovers! Below are some easy recipes and ideas to help you turn your leftovers into something a little more exciting. 

Let's help reduce food waste, enjoy, and appreciate our leftovers with a little help from some other ingredients! Happy cooking! 

Here are some facts about the importance of reducing food waste: 

The global population is 7.7 billion. All the farmers from across the world combined, produce food to feed10 billion people, which is almost 1.5x the current world population. And yet 690 million people, 8.9% of the world population, suffer from hunger. One of the primary causes is the large amounts of wasted food. A staggering total of 1.3 billion tones of food is wasted each year and accounts for nearly 40% of the food produced!

Lower-income countries have been identified as having higher levels of food wastage due to the lack of appropriate storage and little knowledge on how to keep food for longer. By contrast, in more developed countries with easy access to food and the ability to spend more lavishly on groceries, people tend to make larger portion sizes, leading to more wastage and less pressure to save leftovers. 

Producing such large quantities of food, of course, uses up one of the earth’s most valuable and scarce resources – fresh water. Agriculture uses 70% of global fresh water withdrawals. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), nearly 15,000 litres of water is needed to produce just one kilogram of beef. 

Food production is also one of the largest polluters in the world: more than cars, trains, or planes combined. With methane gas from cattle, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, and carbon dioxide emissions, the farming industry accounts for over a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

One of the goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to have “Zero Hunger by 2030”.However, if the current trends continue, the world will have close to 840million people who will be affected by 2030. Currently, 135 million people suffer from acute hunger. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated reduction in economic productivity, this number is expected to double. 

Managing and optimizing food usage, agriculture, and waste are key to ongoing sustainability of our planet’s most vital resources.  Fox Resorts employs a number of sustainability methods, including careful inventory management, use of compost for our gardens, and boiled and filtered water rather than plastic bottles.  We hope that you’ll employ some of our tips on food sustainability in your own homes and help drive sustainability across the globe.

Fox Resorts, the Hospitality arm of the Capital Maharaja Group, operates two luxury boutique hotels in Kokuvil, Jaffna, and Hantana, Kandy. For more details of the properties, call 076 308 4518, or visit www.foxresorts.com