Innovative strategies used by Bloomington businesses and restaurants to cut down on food waste

Bloomington, Indiana – According to Recycle Track Systems, the United States wastes almost 60 million tons, or 120 billion pounds, of food annually, compared to the 2.5 billion pounds that the rest of the world wastes annually. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this accounts for roughly 30–40% of the country’s food supply and generates an average of 325 pounds of trash per person per year.

Why is food waste important? RTS asserts that food waste has permanent effects on the ecosystem. It releases greenhouse gasses in addition to wasting the energy and water used to produce the food. Algal blooms and dead zones in the water supply are caused by nitrogen pollution from food that decomposes in landfills.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature estimates that the energy and labor required for food production, preparation, and transportation in the US is equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 32.6 million cars.

Bloomington restaurants strive to lessen their environmental effect and food waste in their operations. Some people have developed inventive strategies to avoid wasting food or having leftovers at the end of the day.

Owner Chef Daniel Orr stated that FARM Bloomington’s cuisine is based on traditional methods. To lessen the waste produced by the picking and choosing of animal meat, they make an effort to use every component of an animal, such as using the bones to make stock. Vegetable scraps and peels that would otherwise go to waste are added to the stock.

“Having the least amount of trash to dispose of at the end of the day is the key to being a good restaurant,” Orr stated.

Orr works closely with his employees to ensure that the kitchen is free of needless trash. When chopping celery, chefs should only discard ¼ inch of the bottom rather than an inch. Before discarding ketchup or tomato sauce cans, they should scrape the contents out.

They make bread pudding, breadcrumbs, or French toast casseroles with their stale loaves.

Orr personally cultivates fruit, herbs, and mushrooms in his backyard garden. These ingredients, along with edible flowers to adorn some dishes, are used in FARM Bloomington. In order to assist the garden get nutrients, Orr frequently brings compost home from the restaurant.

Gables Bagels, another neighborhood eatery, has come up with a creative method to avoid discarding their freshly made bagels at the end of the day. Anything that remains in the exhibit after closing is put in a bin for the next day. These bagels are thinly sliced and baked into bagel chips as part of their morning preparation. The business sells bags of bagel chips every day.

Incorporating leftover bacon into their maple bacon habanero cream cheese is another inventive strategy employed by Gables. According to Gables manager Ben Yadlosky, he once collaborated with a separate guinea pig rescue and provided them with any extra tomato scraps, cucumber and carrot peels, and any fruit or vegetable scraps they had. When they have more time and room to preserve the leftovers in the refrigerator, he hopes to bring this back shortly.

Yadlosky remarked, “I always like to say, prep less, more often.” “Making smaller batches fewer times results in better quality and typically less waste at the end of the week.”

“Day olds” is displayed next to the cash register at Soma Coffeehouse, Juice Bar, and Two Sticks Bakery. There is no assurance that everything will be sold because both enterprises produce freshly baked items every day. As a result, they store them packaged and prepared for sale the next day at a reduced cost.

In an email to the IDS, co-owner Kassie Jensen stated that Two Sticks Bakery also gives customers a discount if they bring in their own coffee mugs or containers to take home-baked products.