An Industry which provides jobs to (at least) 10% of world population

RESTAURANT DYNASTY

Restaurant Dynasty

Almost half of the food produced in US is destined for landfills

Por favour, espere un momento!

Do we still need unfit restaurants in order to resolve food shortage for starving?

"If food was as expensive as a Ferrari, we would polish it and look after it."

Instead, we waste staggering amounts.

So says Professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen, head of an independent panel of experts advising the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization on how to tackle the problem.

Some 40% of all the food produced in the United States is never eaten. In Europe, we throw away 100 million tonnes of food every year.

And yet there are one billion starving people in the world.

The FAO's best guess is that one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted before it is eaten.

Food waste

33% of all food is wasted

$750bn cost of waste food

            28% of farmland grows food that will be thrown away

            6-10% of greenhouse gases come from waste food

            39% of household food waste is fruit and vegetables

Source: UN/FAO

SPL

The latest report from the expert panel of the UN Committee on World Food Security concludes that food waste happens for many different reasons in different parts of the world and therefore the solutions have to be local.

In rich countries, supermarkets, consumers and the catering industry are responsible for most wasted food. But supermarkets have come under particular pressure to act.

UK supermarket chain Waitrose is attacking food waste in all parts of its business. The upmarket grocery chain cuts prices in order to sell goods that are close to their "sell by" date, donates leftovers to charity and sends other food waste to bio-plants for electricity generation. The idea is for Waitrose to earn "zero landfill" status.

But then there are consumers like Tara Sherbrooke. A busy, working mother of two young children, she works hard to avoid wasting food but still finds herself throwing some of it away.

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"I probably waste about £20 worth of food every week," she says. "It's usually half-eaten packets of food that have gone past their 'best before' date."

In the UK, studies have shown that households throw away about seven million tonnes of food a year, when more than half of it is perfectly good to eat.

Part of the problem is poor shopping habits, but the confusion many consumers have with "use by" and "best before" food labels is also a factor. "Use by" refers to food that becomes unsafe to eat after the date, while "best before" is less stringent and refers more to deteriorating quality.

Plus, as Prof Pinstrup-Andersen points out, food in wealthy countries takes up only a relatively small proportion of income and so people can afford to throw food away.

In developing countries, the problem is one not of wealth but of poverty.

In India's soaring temperatures fruit and vegetables do not stay fresh on the market stall for long. Delhi has Asia's largest produce market and it does have a cold storage facility.

But it is not big enough and rotting food is left out in piles. There is not enough investment in better farming techniques, transportation and storage. It means lost income for small farmers and higher prices for poor consumers.

In terms of calories, farmers harvest the equivalent of 4,600 calories of food per person per day. But on average only 2,000 of those calories are actually eaten every day - meaning more than half the calories we produce are lost on their way from farm to dinner fork.

There is enough food for everyone, just a lot of inefficiency, the FAO report concludes.

The environmental impact of all this wasted food is enormous. The amount of land needed to grow all the food wasted in the world each year would be the size of Mexico.

The water used to irrigate wasted crops would be enough for the daily needs of nine million people. And wasted production contributes 10% to the greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries.

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, New York, is one project trying to reverse that environmental damage.

The plant takes food scraps from local schools and restaurants and converts them into energy. Inside towering, silver eggs food waste is mixed with sewage sludge to create usable gas.

The pilot programme is particularly timely. New York City's restaurants will be required to stop sending food waste to landfills in 2015 and will have to turn to operations like these as alternatives.

So progress is being made. Waste food is high on the agenda politically and environmentally.

But there is still much more work to be done. As Prof Pinstrup-Andersen admits: "We don't really know how much food is being wasted. We just know it's a lot."

Ways to Reduce Food Waste in Your Restaurant

Running a foodservice operation requires a lot of thinking. You have to order ingredients on time, balance your finances, and manage your staff amidst a world of other concerns. As important as it is to consider what food you’re making, it’s equally important to think about what happens to food that’s left uneaten. According to Feeding America, America produces an estimated 70 billion tons of food waste each year.

This is something your customers care about, as demonstrated by food waste statistics. A study by Unilever, revealed that 72% of U.S. diners said that they care about how food waste is handled. 47% are concerned enough that they would be willing to spend more money to eat at a place that actively tries to reduce its food waste production. This makes it all the more important to find ways of reducing food waste in America.

What is a Food Waste Audit?

The first step to reducing waste is to find out how much you’re wasting to begin with and what kind of waste your establishment is producing. The primary goal of a waste audit is to identify where your operation's waste comes from, so you can then find ways to reduce it.

How to Conduct a Food Waste Audit

There are two main factors to take into account as you track your food waste. You need to consider how much food is being wasted and how many people are coming through your restaurant. By gathering data for both of these variables, you can get a better sense of what your biggest source of waste is.

Food log system

Provide your staff with a simple sheet of paper where they can keep track of what's being thrown out, why it's being thrown out, and how much is wasted. As an alternative, there are waste tracking systems like LeanPath that use a specially designed scale with touch screen terminal and computer software to track how much food you're throwing out without the hassle of a pencil and paper.

Also, be sure to keep a second log system for post-consumer waste, or food customers pay for but don’t eat. This type of waste is much more difficult to control because, ultimately, if that toddler at table 3 doesn't want the broccoli his mom ordered for him, odds are good that you're going to get it back, untouched, when they leave. Still, it's well worth evaluating what is being thrown out and how much this amounts to. Gathering as much data as feasibly possible will only help you when it comes time to evaluate the results and make changes to how your operation handles food waste.

Traffic log system

Another common tool that many restaurants use is a daily log of how much traffic the restaurant received and what the weather was like. For example, a log may show that 280 guests were served on the Friday before Christmas and the weather was 50 degrees and sunny. While this data may not seem useful right away, it’s immensely helpful when it comes to planning for the following year’s customer volume. If chefs can get a baseline of how much traffic to expect, based on the previous year’s findings, they will have a better sense of how much food to order. As years go by, this data becomes more and more valuable because the trends become clearer. Many POS systems feature daily log capabilities, so it’s definitely something to look for when you choose a POS for your business.

Seek Food Waste Solutions

Once you know what’s being wasted, talk to your staff and try to think of ways to improve. What are the biggest contributors to food waste in your kitchen? Why are specific items thrown out? These are the questions that should be in the back of your mind as you look at the data.

An easy way to think about next steps is to break up your waste types into three categories: Pre-consumer waste - food that doesn’t even leave the kitchen

Post-consumer waste - food that’s purchased by a customer, but not eaten

Disposables - things like paper goods, plastic utensils, and packaging

Next, consider the following options and determine which ways make the most sense to implement as solutions to each type of waste:

Ways to Reduce Pre-Consumer Food Waste

Pre-consumer waste is the area where you likely have the most opportunity for positive change because there are many factors within your control when it comes to ordering, storing, and prepping your ingredients as well as how you handle surplus ingredients.

Evaluate inventory - If you find that food sits around too long in storage, make sure you’re not ordering too much.

Maximize shelf life - If ingredients you need are going bad before you have a chance to use them, make sure perishables are being properly stored so that you’re not wasting ingredients before they are even cooked.

Find ways of repurposing ingredients - Try making day-old bread into croutons, or put leftover turkey meat into a soup. Similarly, an innovative chef will be able to transform excess ingredients into a daily special.

Train staff to reduce waste - Make sure your staff knows how much ingredients cost. Train them to treat each ingredient as if they bought it with their own money. Proper preparation techniques also help to reduce waste of perfectly good food.

Keep your stock organized - Make sure that your perishables are getting used in a timely manner by developing a refrigerator rotation system. Many restaurants call this the "first in, first out," system. Use stickers with the packaging date clearly written, or Use First" written in large letters to help staff to recognize exactly which products need to be used quickly to prevent spoilage.

Offer staff meals - If there’s just a small amount of ingredients left that won’t be enough for another dinner service, you can give it to your staff for free. Feeding your staff raises morale and prevents good food from being thrown away.

Consider donating food - If you have items that are still safe for consumption but, for one reason or another, can’t be used, a local food bank may appreciate your contribution to feeding people in your community. Programs like Feeding America make it easy to put those unsellable leftovers to good use. Food banks will sometimes even come to your establishment and pick up food for free, and you can claim these charitable donations on your tax return.

Food scraps can be used for animal feed- Many local farmers will provide low cost or free pickup for food scraps, which can be fed to hogs or other animals. If you go this route, you will want to make sure you are following any local, state, or federal regulations on what can and can't be used for animal feed. It presents another chance to help out the local economy while cutting back on your own food waste at the same time. The EPA offers a guide covering some additional ways to do this.

Ways to Reduce Post-Consumer Waste

There’s not much you can do with food once it’s left your kitchen, but you can make sure that you’re presenting guests with necessary information and proper portion sizes, so your customers know what to expect and can eat until they are comfortably full.

•   Monitor portion sizes- If your portions are too big for customers to finish, try a portion scale or some portion spoons to make sure that your customers are getting an appropriate amount of food. Standardizing recipes is one way of ensuring that every member of your staff is plating the same amount of food every time.

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•   Manage customer expectations - Guests will be less likely to send a dish back if it’s been completely and accurately described on the menu. Make sure your wait staff can explain every item on the menu and answer any questions that guests may have.

•   Track the popularity of each dish - If certain menu items are unpopular, you might want to consider adjusting the recipe or removing it from the menu.

•   Encourage guests to take their food home with them - This is a pretty standard practice at most restaurants. Make sure you keep a variety of disposable containers on hand, so guests can take home whatever they can’t finish.

Disposables

While the use of disposables aids in reducing food waste in restaurants, they are inherently designed to be thrown away, so be mindful of which disposables you choose and try to think of ways around using them whenever possible.

•   Set Up Customer Incentives - If you own a cafe or convenience store, you can set up a discount for customers who bring their own to-go mugs.

•   Try Compostable Products - If there’s absolutely no way around using disposable items, try to choose items that are biodegradable whenever possible.

Alternative Waste Disposal Options

For those food items that are simply not destined for consumption or for plastics, cardboard, and cans, consider alternative ways of disposing your waste that doesn’t bury them in a landfill. Composting - If you are fortunate enough to have the space, you can compost on site. If you don't have the space to run your own composting program, finding a composter to take your scraps can still be more a cost-effective alternative to the traditional disposal methods. Essentially all you have to do is separate out compost-worthy material from the regular "garbage".
Composting centers are still gaining ground and therefore not as widespread as traditional landfills, but resources like findacomposter.com make it easy to find a site near you. If composting sounds like a real possibility for managing waste at your establishment, you can find out all the details in our article all about restaurant composting.

•   Recycling - Recycling is a simple way to deal with plastic, cardboard, and glass waste that cannot be avoided, and many restaurants already implement it to reduce their environmental footprints. For more details about recycling, refer to our restaurant recycling guides

Schedule Regular Check-Ins to Monitor Food Waste

It’s important to assess your food waste regularly so that you can constantly monitor trends and implement any changes that may be necessary. No matter how delicious your recipe is, certain dishes can sometimes simply fall out of fashion as customers seek different, newer options. Staff members may move on, so you’ll have new employees to train and manage. There are so many factors that may contribute to increased waste within your carefully thought-out system, so checking in on them is just part of the process of reducing food waste in your restaurant.

Making Alternative Waste Disposal Work For You

There can be many benefits to using alternative waste disposal methods, both environmental and financial. However, not every method will be a good fit for every restaurant. Luckily, the EPA offers handy tools for monitoring food waste management that can give you an idea of how cost effective some of the above methods can be and which ones could be a good fit for your business.

Even if your business seems to have a good handle on its production of food waste, it's never a bad idea to dive a little deeper into how much waste you produce on a daily basis. If your waste production turns out to be more than you thought, try taking some simple steps to better monitor and minimize your waste production. Your community, your planet, and your wallet will thank you.

The American restaurant industry has a big food waste problem. A 2014 study by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance found that 84.3% of unused food in American restaurants ends up being disposed of, while 14.3% is recycled, and only 1.4% is donated.

Many restaurants and organizations have adopted the mission to end food waste, especially since so many people across the country suffer from a lack of access to high-quality food. One of those is Feedback, an environmental organization that has planned a number of campaigns to bring about global awareness of the issue

Steelers Family Feud

Canada, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Russia, Thailand are the suppliers of steel products to US currently


CAUSE:

As U.S. allies, Japan and South Korea feel particularly wounded over steel tariffs  >>>>>>>>>>

And on a policy front, Abe has been an enthusiastic supporter of almost everything Trump has said, especially when it comes to putting “maximum pressure” on North Korea.

But now, Japan, which is not just led by a friendly politician but is a key security ally of the United States, looks likely to be slapped with tariffs on its steel exports to the United States.

“The U.S. is suddenly treating Japan as a target,” said Tsuyoshi Kawase, a professor of international trade policy at Sophia University in Tokyo. 

Things had been looking up for Japan on the trade front. Trump had been talking about returning to the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Japan had helped conclude even after the United States withdrew, and high-level trade talks had been taking place.

“The Japanese side is bewildered and confused, wondering if the U.S. will really impose these tariffs on Japanese steel,” Kawase said.

Trump delayed making a final decision on imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, although he has intimated that Canada and Mexico will get an exception. Other countries will be considered on national security grounds, the White House has said.

Japan and South Korea, another close security ally that is also set to be hit with tariffs, are now furiously lobbying the Trump administration to be exempted.

South Korea is the third-largest exporter of steel to the United States, after Canada and Brazil. It sold 3.5 million tons of steel products to the United States last year. Japan exported 1.9 million tons of steel to the United States last year and 33,000 tons of aluminum. 

Trump has proposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum.

South Korea’s trade minister, Kim Hyun-chong, is now on his second trip to Washington in two weeks, meeting with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, as well as key lawmakers such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). That is in addition to the campaign being waged in Washington by a special South Korean trade task force.

The trade battle with South Korea — the prospect of steel tariffs follows on the heels of similar levies on solar panels and washing machines — comes at a sensitive time on the diplomatic front. 

Trump’s administration does not exactly have the best relationship with Moon Jae-in’s progressive government in Seoul. But Moon has been going all-out to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and the United States, creating the prospect of a lull in tensions, if not the start of a thaw.

With the alliance in a delicate spot, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said this week that the tariffs could have a “negative impact on South Korea-U.S. relations.”

Ahn Deuk-geun, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies, said: “The South Korean government is perplexed with this trade backlash because it comes at a time of cooperation with the U.S. on North Korea-related issues. The South Korean government maintains that the security and trade issues are separate, but in the big picture, this is awkward.”

This will only become more awkward if South Korea takes a case against the United States to the World Trade Organization.

For its part, China is issuing stern warnings that it would come back with a “justified and necessary” response if the United States moved to start a larger trade war. 

“As for our trade frictions, history teaches us that trade war is never the right solution,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said at a news conference Thursday. “In a globalized world it is particularly unhealthy, as it will harm the initiator as well as the target country.”

“The bottom line is,” Wang said, “as the world’s largest economies, China and America’s interests are deeply entwined.”

Andy Rothman, an investment strategist at the Matthews Asia investment firm, said that if China believes it is being targeted on trade by Washington,“Beijing will respond in a proportionate way — probably by curbing imports of American soybeans in the hope that Midwestern farmers will mark their displeasure at the ballot box in November’s midterm elections.”

While China is threatening and South Korea is lobbying, Japan is trying to work behind the scenes to get added to the exemption list.

“Japan is taking a quiet approach, trying not to let the trade issue take a toll on the overall alliance,” said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

“If Japan protests openly, it would just lead to a tit-for-tat with Trump, and Japan knows that’s something it shouldn’t do,” he said.

To try to avoid tariffs, Japan’s officials are focusing particularly on the fact that its steel industry — unlike China’s — poses no national security threat to the United States.

“Exports of high-quality steel and aluminum from Japan, a U.S. ally, do not damage the U.S.’s national security in any way,” Hiroshige Seko, Japan’s trade minister, told reporters in Singapore this week. “Instead, they are contributing to the U.S. economy and creating jobs.”

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s second-largest carmaker, has said the tariffs would substantially raise the prices of cars and trucks it sells in the United States. Japanese steel company executives are concerned that the move could cause upheaval in global markets.

“We are deeply concerned these tariffs will affect the steel trade across the entire world, especially if other countries follow suit and also become protectionist,” said Kosei Shindo, who is president of Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, and chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation.

“Trump says the WTO has ruined the U.S. economy, but the free-trade order that WTO sustains is extremely important for the whole world,” Shindo said at a news conference.

Said Watanabe, the Japanese researcher: “When trade friction grows between allies, the alliance is weakened. But it’s unclear if Trump understands that.” 

China files trade complaint against US over steel tariffs   >>>>>>>>>>>>>

China has filed a World Trade Organization complaint challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hike on imported steel and aluminum, according to a trade body.

China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute, said the WTO.

Chinese employees watch hot red steel at a steel plant in Zouping in China's eastern Shandong province on March 5, 2018.

China has filed a World Trade Organization complaint challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hike on imported steel and aluminum, the trade body said Tuesday.

The tariff spat is one element of a wide-ranging trade dispute between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping's government. Trump also has threatened to increase duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate conflict over technology policy.

China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute, according to the WTO. If that fails, the next step could be for Beijing to request a ruling from a panel of trade experts.

Beijing says Trump's decision to impose additional duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent aluminum violate international trade rules.

Steel and aluminum are among Chinese industries in which supply exceeds demand. China's trading partners complain its mills are exporting their surplus at improperly low prices, threatening jobs in the United States and Europe.

The United States buys little Chinese steel and aluminum following earlier tariff hikes meant to offset what Washington says are improper subsidies to producers. But economists said Beijing responded in order to show it would defend itself.

China's government issued a $3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork, apples and steel pipes on March 23 that it said might be targeted for retaliation if Trump fails to negotiate a settlement to the dispute over steel and aluminum charges 

Asia's biggest exporters bristle over U.S. tariffs, fanning trade war fears  >>>>>>>>

TOKYO (Reuters) - Major Asian nations reacted sharply on Friday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, warning of damage to relations amid industry calls for retaliation.

Japan said the move would have a “big impact” on the countries’ close bilateral ties, while China said it was “resolutely opposed” to the decision and South Korea said it may file a complaint to the World Trade Organization.

Trump on Thursday pressed ahead with the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum on Thursday, though he announced exemptions for Canada and Mexico, and said exceptions could also be made for other allies.

China, which produces half the world’s steel, will assess any damage caused by the U.S. move and “firmly defend its legitimate rights and interests,” the country’s Ministry of Commerce said.

The tariffs would “seriously impact the normal order of international trade,” the ministry said.

The European Union, Brazil and Argentina said overnight they should not be targeted or would seek exemptions, and both Japan and South Korea said they would ask to be made exceptions also.

South Korea, a key Washington Asian ally, is the third largest steel exporter to the United States, after Canada and Brazil.

The U.S. is the world’s biggest importer of steel, purchasing 35 million tonnes of raw material in 2017. Of those imports, South Korea, Japan, China and India accounted for 6.6 million tonnes.

“We should prevent a trade war situation from excessive protectionism, in which the entire world harm each other,” Trade Minister Paik Un-gyu told a meeting with steelmakers.

Trade tensions between China and United States have risen since Trump took office. China accounts for only a small fraction of U.S. steel imports, but its massive industrial expansion has helped create a global glut of steel that has driven down prices.

China’s steel and metals associations urged the government to retaliate against the United States, citing imports ranging from stainless steel to coal, agricultural products and electronics.

It was the most explicit threat yet from the country in an escalating trade spat.

The dispute has fueled concerns that soybeans, the United States’ most valuable export to the world’s second largest economy, might be caught up in the trade actions after Beijing launched a probe into imports of U.S. sorghum, a grain used in animal feed and liquor.

“The cost of a trade war will be tremendous and it will make everyone unhappy,” Junichi Makino, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo, said in a report on Friday.

TRANSSHIPMENTS

Trump’s declaration coincided with the signing by 11 countries of a new Trans-Pacific trade pact that the United States withdrew from last year.

The announcement underlines concerns about rising U.S. protectionism and the latest tariffs offset the positive impact from plans also announced overnight for Trump to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un that raised hopes of ending a standoff over North

Korea’s nuclear weapons program, said Kwon Young-sun, an economist at Nomura Securities.

While carrying a message to Washington to push forward a diplomatic breakthrough over North Korea, South Korea’s national security office chief Chung Eui-yong requested U.S. officials to support South Korea’s request for a waiver on the steel tariffs, a South Korean presidential spokesman said.

Trump in January ordered tariffs on solar panels and washing machines imports to the United States.

Exports of these products and steel and aluminum make up less than 1 percent of South Korea’s total exports, Young-sun said.

“But broader U.S. curbs and countermeasures from Europe or China could derail the exports environment going forward,” he said.

A senior South Korean official said the tariffs would impact the renegotiation of the bilateral free trade deal with the United States that is currently underway.

The official said ways had to be found to address steel overcapacity in China as South Korea was the top importer of Chinese steel, although shipments from China were 21 percent down in 2017 from the previous year.

He said the United States has raised concerns over South Korea’s “transshipment” of Chinese steel, although the trade ministry has argued that only 2.4 percent of steel exported to the U.S. uses Chinese material.

The official also expect higher U.S. tariffs to put South Korean carmakers, Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Kia Motors (000270.KS), at a disadvantage in the U.S. market as it would increase their costs.

In Sydney, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sounded confident of getting favorable treatment as Trump spoke of Washington’s strong relationship with Australia, a major exporter of iron ore but exports little steel and the United States was not a major customer.

“I was pleased to see the president acknowledge the strong points I have been making to him. There is no case for imposing tariffs on Australian steel,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

India’s steel ministry said in a note to the trade ministry last month that U.S. import tariffs were expected to lead to a loss of $130 million in exports which were expected to total 333,656 tonnes for the year ending on March 31.

European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will host her U.S. and Japanese counterparts in Brussels on Saturday to discuss steel overcapacity as part of talks that begin in December at a World Trade Organization meeting in Buenos Aires.

Shares in China’s steel and aluminum makers fell on Friday morning. Baoshan Iron & Steel (600019.SS) was down 3.3 percent by 0616 GMT, while Hesteel (000709.SZ) and Beijing Shougang (000959.SZ) were down more than 1 percent.

In South Korea, shares in Posco 0054900.KS were down 3.5 percent, while in Tokyo Japan’s biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal (5401.T) fell 0.7 percent by the close.

Chinese steel futures slumped to their weakest level since November.