Organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Theme
Waste, consumption & food
Start Date
Aug 2022
Goals
Food, Nature
Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust undertook a review of their food waste operations at their hospitals.
The Trust identified quick and big wins to reduce food waste by 13%. Re-training and analysing the different ward's needs were instrumental in changing behaviours and raising the profile of the food waste problem.
The Challenge
Food waste is responsible for 6% of global greenhouse emissions, with food production responsible for over a quarter of global emissions. [1]
An audit in 2022 revealed that Guy’s, Evelina and St Thomas’ hospitals produced 194 tonnes of food waste per year. The general manager of catering at the Trust and his team took on the challenge of reducing this waste, aiming to reduce it to below 10 tonnes per month by 2025. The catering team at Royal Brompton Hospital - where food waste equated to 28 tonnes per year – also sought to make reductions.
This project is part of the Trust’s Sustainability Strategy, which identifies food as a key objective under the strategic theme of Connecting with Nature. The Trust commits to reduce the environmental impacts of its hospital meals and the food retailers provide across its sites by optimising its operations, reducing food waste by a third, and increasing sustainable food choices. [2]
Action Taken
A task and finish group were established, including all stakeholders involved with food preparation, food service, and food waste recording and collection (patient and private patient feeding, in-house and commercial retail, hospitality, waste management, production kitchens, and catering stores).
The first big step was creating more oversight over food waste, with regular monitoring reports outlining which areas within the Trust contributed most to food waste.
Analysis revealed quick wins, such as retraining the patient food service assistants on the correct process of utilising the biodegradable food bags and food waste bins and reducing the patient feeding pack sizes. Other quick wins were weighing food waste, analysing the data, and reviewing menu standing orders and nursery food requirements.
A big win was reducing food waste at breakfast. Reliance on pre-made porridge and pre-cooked toast created huge amounts of waste. Food waste was considerably reduced by retraining and investigating different methods of making porridge and cooking toast in batches.
Reducing the amount of hot food on the counters towards the end of service times within the in-house retail outlets whilst still providing a condensed offer also made an easy way to reduce food waste.
The Results So Far
In early 2024, the Trust’s food waste collection data was analysed, revealing a reduction of food waste by almost 30 tonnes during the previous year, with a carbon emission dioxide equivalent (CO2e) saving of 187 tonnes. This equates to a food waste saving of 13%. The challenge now is to maintain this reduction year on year and further reduce food waste by one-third.
Additional support came from the clinical and nutritional leads, who could engage with the wards, contributing the highest amount of food waste and discussing ways to change the current food offer without affecting the patients' nutritional intake.
One of the biggest challenges was changing existing preconceptions around food waste and getting people to understand its importance and impact. Previous poor communication meant meals were being provided to wards that regularly had special diets or had nil-by-mouth patients.
Continued monitoring showed how impactful reducing food waste has been and the financial benefits to the Trust. It also identified other ways of reducing the emissions associated with food. The project aims to improve food production processes by reviewing menus and replacing products with high-emission values.
The Trust has recently introduced venison meat as a substitute for beef to reduce food production emissions across three of its hospitals. Venison is a more sustainable alternative and an ethical source of meat that doesn’t compromise on quality and nutritional value.
