Sustainability and food waste in catering

Food waste is not just an environmental issue — it is also an operational economic challenge that the catering industry is increasingly taking seriously. As a waiter, you sit on important knowledge from the dining room that can help reduce waste if used properly.

According to surveys from the Environmental Protection Agency, food waste in the catering industry has remained roughly stable at around 75,000 tons per year in recent surveys, and it has remained largely unchanged since 2018 despite increased focus and regulation. Denmark is also among the EU countries that generate the most food waste per capita. This shows that good intentions alone are not enough — concrete changes must be made in daily operations.

In 2025, the European Parliament adopted binding targets for reducing food waste by 2030: a reduction of 10 percent in food processing and production, and 30 percent in retail, food service, catering, and households. This makes the catering industry one of the areas where efforts must be intensified most in the coming years, and where the Danish Ministry of Food is expected to follow up with a new national food waste strategy.

Waste arises both in the kitchen, from poor inventory management, and in the dining room — when food comes back because the portion was too large, the order was misunderstood, or the guest changed their mind. The dining room's share of waste is therefore closely linked to how precisely you take orders, how well you advise on portion sizes, and how clearly allergies and preferences are communicated to the kitchen so the food doesn't have to be remade.

• 01Always repeat the order so incorrect orders and thus wasted food are avoided.
• 02Be honest about portion sizes — suggest sharing a dish if it's large.
• 03Offer doggy bags as a natural, not awkward, part of the closing.
• 04Report back to the kitchen if a particular dish often comes back uneaten.

The same principle as in the kitchen's raw material store applies to the dining room's own store of beverages and consumables: use the oldest first (FIFO — first in, first out) and keep an eye on expiry dates on eg opened bottles of wine and non-alcoholic drinks. A well-managed store reduces waste which would otherwise actually be a form of spoilage.

Many brass work begins as a cast or rolled brass piece that is further processed through turning, milling, filing and drilling. The brass worker adapts, assembles and post-processes the parts into a finished product — e.g. a complete fitting or a bracket that fits exactly to a door or furniture. The trade requires both machine understanding and craftsmanship, because the last finishing and decorative work is often done by hand.

The food waste that inevitably arises can still be useful if it is sorted correctly. Organic waste sorted from other waste can be converted to biogas and nutrient-rich fertilizer instead of going to incineration — one of the most effective methods to limit waste's overall climate footprint when waste arises anyway.