Food waste is both a sustainability challenge and a significant cost for catering teams. For care providers operating across multiple sites, understanding where waste is occurring and why can be particularly challenging.
With food costs under continued pressure and sustainability remaining a priority, having accurate data can help catering teams move beyond simply recording waste and start identifying where meaningful reductions can be made.
Research
1 found that for every £1 invested in reducing food waste, businesses could see a return of £14, highlighting the potential financial value of taking a structured approach to waste management.
Using food data to drive waste reduction
Avendra International’s
Pi eProcurement platform includes a Food Waste Management tool designed to help catering teams monitor waste across their operations.
The tool enables teams to:
- Track waste: Record when and where waste occurs across a site or wider organisation.
- Calculate costs: Understand the financial impact of food being wasted.
- Review progress: Monitor the effectiveness of waste reduction strategies over time.
By recording waste data and calculating its associated cost, catering teams can identify patterns and make more informed decisions around purchasing, production and kitchen operations.
The data is presented through easy-to-read graphs, allowing teams to monitor progress month by month and identify areas that may require further attention.
For organisations operating across multiple sites, this visibility can be particularly valuable. Waste can be monitored at an individual site level while also giving procurement and management teams a broader view of performance across the organisation.
How the Pi system supports smarter decisions in care catering
For care providers, food waste is closely linked to a number of operational considerations. Overproduction, changing resident numbers, portion sizes, menu choices and purchasing decisions can all influence how much food ultimately goes to waste.
Having access to accurate information can help teams understand these patterns and make adjustments where appropriate, whether that means changing order quantities, reviewing menus or identifying opportunities to improve kitchen processes.
The tool can also be customised to monitor specific aspects of food waste, allowing organisations to focus on the areas most relevant to their operation.
Client success story
One NHS hospital client using the Pi Food Waste Management Module reduced food waste by
15%, with the system helping teams across wards, food service and retail operations identify opportunities to reduce waste and develop new strategies.
Mia Westwood, Client Procurement Manager at Avendra International, explains:
“The Pi Food Waste Management Module has been a big help towards reducing food waste in line with our client’s sustainability pledge. It has improved waste management across their hospital wards, and their FSAs and retail teams have interacted well with the system.”
She adds that the system’s data analysis has helped hospital teams identify areas where waste could be reduced and develop strategies to maintain progress.
Making every pound work harder
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For care catering teams, reducing food waste is not simply about sustainability. It can also contribute directly to better cost control and more efficient operations.
The combination of accurate waste data, procurement visibility and practical action can give catering teams a clearer understanding of where money is being lost and where changes could make a difference.
As pressures on care providers continue, using data to inform purchasing, production and menu decisions could help catering teams make every pound work harder, while continuing to provide nutritious, enjoyable food for residents.
For organisations looking to reduce food waste, the starting point may be simple: understand what is being wasted, where it is happening and what it is costing.
From there, data can help turn that insight into practical action.
Want to see how Avendra’s Pi eProcurement system could help your catering team reduce food waste?
Book a demo with Avendra International to see how the Food Waste Management tool can help you track waste, understand costs and identify opportunities to reduce it.
Request a demo :
[email protected]
Visit our website
https://www.avendra.com/en/uk/your-industry/healthcare
1 Champions 12.3,
The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste.
Read the research 
