Logging Food Waste
Restaurant Food Waste Amounts to a Cost of $25 Billion Per Year in the USA
With average profit margins ranging from 2% to 6%, optimizing profits and reducing costs is a matter of survival in the restaurant industry. When it comes to food waste at the micro level, for every dollar spent on food waste reduction, restaurants will see an average of $8 in savings. Food waste is not only an environmental issue, but it is an essential factor in whether or not a restaurant will be successful.
The Challenge
The challenge is to understand food waste management strategies in the restaurants industry, and to find opportunities to optimize user experience within these systems.
The Deliverables
Researching Food Waste Management Strategies
How Are Restaurants Currently Addressing This Issue?
According to Notch Financial, proper food waste management involves the execution of the following steps:
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Create a system to accurately predict needs
This deals with the supply side of the business and forecasting customer numbers and food supplies on any given day.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d32fbe89f046eb6bcc3_Icon4.png)
Conduct a waste audit
By tracking daily waste by kitchen station or by designated bins, restaurant owners can get a good understanding of actual food waste and take action accordingly.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d38c7afb79e3d6f3cb1_OIcon2.png)
Make the most of inventory
Once restaurant owners gain some insight from their waste audit, they can encourage kitchen staff to be more sustainable with their inventory (i.e. use leftover produce in soup stocks), or tweak ordering strategies.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d343c4185b8f12cae33_Icon5.png)
Create recipes and stick to them
Creating a fixed menu helps restaurants better predict what is needed when ordering supplies and ingredients. This makes inventory management more streamlined and cuts food waste.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d2d2eb27f850e03fa5a_Icon1.png)
Follow HACCP guidelines
Carefully following hazard analysis and critical control point guidelines can reduce waste because less product is being thrown out due toconsumption safety.
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Schedule regular check-ins
Regular waste audits should be conducted in order to ensure that waste prevention procedures are being respected and followed.
Being Proactive vs. Reactive
According to a 2015 study by Bruce McAdams et al., strategies undertaken by management at restaurants tend to be reactive as opposed to proactive. This means that, during inventory checking, many restaurants will identify a food waste problem a week after the waste actually occurred. The same study also found that the most expensive waste was coming from the back-of-house, with food waste from a customer's plate consisting mostly of low-cost starches.
Putting a Spotlight on the Food Waste Audit
The Bruce McAdams study brought my attention to issues of the identifying a waste problem before it's too late. This pushed me to focus on the food waste audits and regular check-ins. Food waste audits are a proactive strategy that help restauranteurs get a grasp on food-related losses before it's too late.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d32fbe89f046eb6bcc3_Icon4.png)
Conduct a waste audit
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/6408db5ae0e5f4cf363d502f_Plus%20Math.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171d367b8e01b687234139_Icon6.png)
Schedule regular check-ins
The Bruce McAdams study also led me to focus on back-of-house strategies, since customers tend to waste low-cost items, and pre-consumer waste is considered the greater point of loss. By knowing when, where, and what food items are being wasted, restaurant owners can see if the systems they put into place are actually working. Therefore, staple recipes, HACCP compliance, proper inventory usage and customer prediction systems can be evaluated and reassessed through a food waste audit. Without the audit, the restaurant owner won't know whether or not their strategies are being followed by staff, or if they are even working in the first place.
Learning More From Restaurant Owners and Staff
Interviews
I interviewed a restaurant owner from the fine dining sector, a head chef from the casual dining sector, and a grill cook from the fast casual sector of the restaurant industry. I wanted my interview participants to come from a variety of roles as well as different sectors of the restaurant industry in order to get a more comprehensive understanding of their experiences with food waste audits in the back-of-house.
A Deeper Understanding
Our Personas
I used personas to represent the different members of the restaurant industry that I interviewed to get a better understanding of user needs.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c917690971bcbe6fdde16_Jerry.png)
Jerry the Grill Master
Gender: Male
Age: 39
Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
Occupation: Chef
Roles: Butcher and prep meat, grill and bake meats, add garnishes and finishing touches before hot dishes leave the kitchen.
Likes: Efficient and ironclad systems to ensure a smooth service.
Dislikes: Being disorganized, especially during and after a busy service.
Vincent the Night Shift Manager
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Occupation: Restaurant Manager
Roles: Open and/or close the restaurant, manage staff, help at all stations when needed, ensure brand and client standards are being met.
Likes: A self-sufficient staff and solutions that ease responsibilities.
Dislikes: Long closing shifts.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c918390971b2de5fddeb4_Vincent%20(big).png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c918e2e2b163f341b1999_Liana%20(big).png)
Liana the Restauranteur
Gender: Female
Age: 51
Location: New York, NY, USA
Occupation: Restaurant Owner
Roles: Make sure operations are running smoothly, bartend on Wednesday's and Friday's, keep track of inventory and accounting.
Likes: Happy clientele and a happy staff.
Dislikes: Being out of the loop, unnecessary costs and losses.
The User Journey
I used insights from my interviews as well as the exemplar food waste sheet to help map the user journey of conducting a restaurant-based food waste audit. To properly track food waste, many restaurants require either the closing manager to record waste from designated food waste bins, or have the kitchen staff keep track of waste within their individual cooking station. The manager then needs to log all of the food waste from paper to a desktop computer in the restaurant's office on a daily tracking Excel sheet, and then file or send the reports off the to owners to be reviewed.
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Existing Food Waste Audit Solutions
While there are several solutions for food safety (HACCP) and inventory portions of food waste management, it was difficult to find anything on the market that singularly addressed food waste audits. After some digging, I finally discovered Leanpath and Smart Kitchen Solutions.
Leanpath and Smart Kitchen Solutions offer a streamlined way to conduct food audits by connecting their software to their proprietary scales. However, both solutions require investment in a proprietary tablet (at the very least), and logging of food waste can only be done by one person at a time with their scales and tablet (unless restaurant owners are willing to heavily invest in multiple hardware pieces). With these being the only solutions I could find, I concluded that there was a need in the market for a more accessible way to conduct a food waste audit. Currently, solutions for food waste auditing starts with low streamlined user flow systems, like pen and paper logs, with the upside being that these solutions are easily accessible. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Leanpath and Smart Kitchen offer highly streamlined food waste audit solutions, but are much less accessible with a hefty price tag and high commitment to their tech packages.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/64171bdc7b8e019412231cec_Group%2036.png)
So, How Do We Improve the Food Waste Audit Experience?
Problem Statements
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c917490971bf88cfdde09_jerry%20(small).png)
Jerry needs a more efficient system to log food waste because using pen and paper can be laborious at the end of a tiring shift.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c917ddb7cbcaabbeb5e3a_Vincent%20(small).png)
Vincent needs a better way to integrate all logs from his staff at the end of the night because mistakes are often made when transferring data from paper to a digital spreadsheet.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/640c918b317316d12c835498_Liana%20(small).png)
Liana needs food waste data to be more immediate and understandable so that see can properly monitor the effectiveness of her restaurant's food waste management procedures.
The Solution
Based on the interviews, the comparative audit, and the user journey map, my solution was to...
Create an app for tablet and mobile devices whereby restaurant staff can easily record food waste, logs can be integrated into one singular platform, and results and trends can be accessed and analyzed by ownership.
Why an App for Tablet & Mobile?
After conducting my own on-site research, I found that 9/10 restaurants I visited within a 2-week period owned a tablet. However, instead of just creating a tablet app, I decided to create a mobile version as well so that kitchen staff could log waste at the same time and/or at their leisure, without having to wait around for their turn.
Some restaurants (particularly larger, more corporate restaurants) have a strict "no cellphones on the floor" policy. For those staff members who were not allowed to log waste on their phone during shift hours, there would still be a tablet version available.
Starting the Design Process
Sketching User Flows and Mobile Layouts
I sketched user flows for each persona, with the knowledge that they had different needs and roles with regards to food waste audits. I used these flows to guide my decisions during the wireframe stage of the design process.
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Streamlining the Paper Waste Log Sheet
I wanted to save time for the kitchen staff and managers who would be filling out these digital log sheets at the end of a shift. To do so, I ensured that my app removed the following steps from the paper version of the food waste audit user journey:
- Find a waste logging sheet: Kitchen staff will be able to log food waste through their cellphones, which are often in their pockets during service.
- Enter name: The app will keep them logged in should they conduct the audit with their cellphone.
- Enter station: The app will remember the station where they last logged waste..
- Enter date: Date tracking is supported by the app
- Station/restaurant specific libraries: Any food logged prior to a specific cooking station will be kept in a library, so that they can be quickly selected again.
- Hand-in/log sheet integration: All logs will exist within the app, and will be sorted by date of submission.
Wireframes
I created lo-fi wireframes with different user flows in mind -- Kitchen Staff, Manager, and Ownership. Each were distinct according to the needs of each persona, as well as their roles in the food waste audit process. I took the mobile-first approach in order to help me focus on only the most essential features and more seamlessly transfer to the design to tablet.
Kitchen Staff User Flow
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/6411f53e50d4d6a562d1c6e4_Group%2096.png)
Manager User Flow
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/6414c63ac3b6494352ca8ef5_Group%2097%20(1).png)
Restaurant Ownership User Flow
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63629dfb54337f34efc0c7a6/6411f53527c02a8d7688afd4_Group%2095.jpg)
Responsive Mockups
The Hi-Fi (Mobile) Prototypes
To Conclude...
User Response
I showed the prototype to people that I interviewed, as well as a few more ex-industry people. They all became excited about the concept, with a few wondering why something like this didn't already exist. The restaurant owner I spoke to said that she would love some more elaborate analytics on the owner side of the app.
Reflection
I learned that restaurant-based food waste management requires several moving parts. I found it rewarding to tackle a single part of a complex system. I feel as though the more aspects I learn about food waste management, the better I'll be able to find a way to reduce costs for hard-working restaurant owners, and make the lives of managers and kitchen staff a little bit easier.