Cutting business waste is just one of the ingredients in Unilever Food Solutions’ recipe for a waste-free future. We spoke to chefs Alex Hall in the UK, Audrey Crone in Ireland and Mary Worthington in South Africa to find out how they’re helping reduce waste and increase profit margins in the process.

No one sets out to bin good food, least of all chefs for whom food waste can result in profit margin losses of up to 15% (Kantar 2021).

And yet in a recent report, the UN stated that of the 931 million tonnes of food waste generated in 2019, 26% came from the foodservice industry. In the UK alone, according to food waste campaigners WRAP, 18% of food purchased by the hospitality sector is binned, and food waste warriors Guardians of Grub suggest that this is costing annual losses of about £3.2 billion.

In 2020 Unilever committed to tackling this issue through its Future Foods initiative, setting itself the goal of halving food waste from factory to shelf by 2025. Two years on, although some progress has been made, there is much more to do in order to meet this target.

Leading the way is Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) – Unilever’s global network of professional chefs that support foodservice businesses with trusted brands and quality solutions.

Well on track to meet their 2025 target, UFS has already achieved significant reductions in business waste, thanks to more effective, dynamic forecasting and clear strategies that ensure ageing stock and close-to-sell-by date goods are rightfully donated to food banks and other organisations (see

How UFS is living up to its name
However, it is earlier in the process that Melinda Taylor, Unilever Food Solutions Marketing Director, feels UFS is having the most impact. “We have piloted systems to make the most of food waste once it is in kitchens,” she says. “But nothing has been as effective as training and partnerships in terms of changing behaviour and preventing food waste happening in the first place.”

In a global landscape where 1 in 10 people go hungry and 8–10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the disposal of unused food, the humanitarian and environmental impact of food waste is clear. But while many chefs are motivated to act for the good of people and the planet, recent ingredient and staff shortages, rising energy costs and financial slowdowns in many markets mean that ending food waste is now also a financial imperative few can afford to ignore.

How chef-to-chef training is winning the war on waste
“The financial impact of food loss is the hook for many business owners and chefs who are always under pressure to achieve financial savings or cost savings,” says Mary Worthington, Culinary Experience Adviser, UFS Durban. As one of the around 250 UFS chefs working to reduce food waste, Mary works with professional chefs in diverse settings ranging from restaurants and cafés to hospitals and care homes.

But whatever the setting, the UFS message is always the same: throwing away food is throwing away profit.

“As senior leaders we have a responsibility to start thinking about food waste in a different way,” says Alex Hall, Executive Chef, UFS UKI. “We need a mind shift to what Vojtech Verg, a leading chef in food waste, calls Black Truffle mentality. If every product in the kitchen was treated like a truffle that costs hundreds of pounds per kilo, would we throw it away with such impunity?”

Audrey Crone, Executive Chef, UFS Ireland, agrees, and because she is a professional chef, her advice comes from a place of experience.

“Understanding what challenges the teams are facing and what their needs are is the core to what we do,” says Audrey. “When it comes to food waste and protecting profit margins, we are actually going back to old-fashioned ‘waste not, want not’ systems.”