Menu planning & purchasing
Having good menu planning is the key to reducing food waste in school, restaurants, and at home. Creating a flexible menu, involving diners, and testing new dishes and ingredients only on a smaller scale are some examples of how to work with menu planning and purchasing to reduce food waste.
Plan menu
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Always plan your menu by season and delivery times, think locally, and let the goods travel in as little time as possible.
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Increase the number of vegetables and legumes and "season" with meat and fish. If you reduce the amount of meat and fish, you can instead cost on you better quality.
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Plan your menu to use the ingredients that have been left over from the dishes.
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The same type of raw material can recur in different dishes, for example, buy, a fish that suits both fried fish and fish soup.
Flexible menu
A flexible menu shall be less detailed and allows for modifications. In menu planning for several kitchens, one of the components or raw materials can be determined, such as a stew, but alternative dishes and accessories are adapted to what already exists in each kitchen and the guests' wishes. It is also important to prepare guests that all dishes or accessories may not be available throughout the serving.
The Swedish National Food Administration encourages you to have a flexible menu, as it will then be easier to adapt the meals to the guests and to what is available in the kitchen.
A flexible menu can also be customized according to what is available to buy with short durability at wholesale and other suppliers. For those who procure food services from other actors, it is important to bear in mind that they too need to have the opportunity to be flexible.
Plan your purchase
It's important to create a routine for purchasing ​​
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Plan food purchases while planning menu to make it easier to fix food purchases and orders
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Start from your recipes and your own experiences of how much food is used to
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Inventory of refrigeration and storage of raw materials and residues
Delivery of fresh raw materials
Please wait as long as possible to order fresh foods and short shelf-life items to get the best quality of your goods. Have a great dialog with your suppliers, it is important to have reasonable demands on the supplier about the number of days a food should have left in its shelf life before the date has passed. If you have a good dialog, planning will be much easier, and you can get help with food purchases. If you buy cheaper goods with a short shelf life, make sure to get it up on the menu right away.
Buy packs in different sizes
Buy food in both larger and smaller packs when you make your food purchases. This will make it easier to avoid large open packs becoming standing and the contents becoming old. Unpack foods to be frozen into appropriately large packaging so you can thaw only what is needed.