Category: Blog

Restaurants do inventory counts several times a month as they receive orders at least once a week. The manual work is time consuming and most restaurants spend more time than they think when it comes to inventory management.

The restaurant managers we have worked with would much rather spend their time on other tasks (e.g. counting cash, dishwashing) than constantly having to make time to count their inventory.

Why do most people want to avoid counting their inventory manually in restaurants? We see that there are several reasons for this.

Lack of Organization and Control

One of the reasons that keeping track of inventory is so time consuming is that prior to getting to the stage of counting inventory, time needs to be spent on organizing, cleaning and sorting products. 

You have to get rid of items that have gone out of date, clean the shelves, sort and group different types of items – all this before you can even start counting each item.

No System for Expired Products

Most restaurants know that FIFO is an important rule when it comes to inventory management – First In, First Out. In a time-pressured industry such as the restaurant industry, one will often just grab the first thing one finds and therefore often easily forget this. Waiters may  feel that it is not their job to oversee this or do not see the value of FIFO. Furthermore, the management team does not have time for this.

Whatever the reason is for not being able to follow the FIFO-method, a significant part of restaurant inventory ends up being thrown away, making it much harder to keep count.

Read more about how restaurants can reduce food waste here.

Lack of Knowledge Among Employees

Let’s say that you as a restaurant manager have control over an organized inventory and follow the FIFO method. But, you know you can not do this alone. Many new waiters and employees come in and out of the restaurant industry, this means that more time and effort needs to be spent on teaching staff how to manage inventory. 

Price Lookup

After you have counted as well as organized stock and written everything you have down on paper, you have to look up all the prices. You probably have several hundred items in your stock and need to look over the price you paid for each of these, another time consuming task. 

Manual spreadsheets

After organizing, counting and researching prices on inventory – all this is then manually entered into a spreadsheet on the computer. This can often lead to several errors, underlining why counting items manually  is  hard and time consuming.

Time-consuming Calculations and  Analysis

Furthermore, you also need to analyze numbers for your restaurant and understand what those numbers mean. Have any items disappeared? Are you ordering too much of something that leads to food waste?

Furthermore, the whole process needs to be repeated again….

Inventory counting is a time consuming and endless process that can be improved with the help of inventory management software. Read more here about how the HORECA industry can digitize their inventory system.

There are several reasons to be smarter when it comes to fully utilizing the food we buy ? We all need to get better at using leftovers. With this, we give you 10 tips on how to use all your leftovers and avoid food waste:

1. Have a plan

When planning meals, think about what your potential leftovers can be. This can save you time, money and avoid food waste. For example, when cooking vegetables, you can cook enough to not only last you for the day’s meal but use the vegetables as a soup or a pasta dish later in the week.

2. Portion and store smart

Many food products come in large packages, it is thus important that you learn how to store this in the best possible way. It can be smart to freeze items such as bread, tortillas and pita. When it comes to your leftovers, you can store this in glass containers, (both reusable and sustainable), allowing you to see what’s inside. To freeze your leftovers, you can use zip-loc bags, labelling it with the date and what it contains.

3. “Kitchen sink” meals

Well-cooked vegetables, pieces of cheese, beef, shrimp or chicken can be mixed with salad and your favorite dressing for a fresh salad.

4. Alternative to composting

As an alternative to composting, you can store vegetable scraps in a zip-top bag in the freezer to make stock. This can be thawed and placed in a pot of water. Leave it for 2 hours, strain – and you will have a great veggie stock.

5. Turn dinner into a lunch

This saves both time and money in a busy everyday life. Place a portion from your dinner in a lunch box and use it for lunch the next day.

6. Leftovers are ingredients

Your leftovers can be used in many different dishes. If you blend cooked vegetables with a can of tomatoes you can make a delicious veggie sauce for pasta.

7. Old bread?

Mix together remnants of herbs and bread in your food processor to make bread crumbs, and freeze these. Use as a topping for fried or baked cheese, or you could add cheese and make a spread for baked mushrooms.

8. Leftover day

Do you have a lot of leftovers that accumulate in the fridge during the week? Dedicate a day where you commit to “eating down your fridge”. 

9. Soup

You can make soup out of the extra vegetables you have from a previous meal. Put it in a blender with 3 cups of vegetable/chicken broth, and heat the soup. Add a little spice and top with pesto or croutons.

10. Don’t buy in bulks

Buying in bulk may be convenient, but this shopping method leads to more food waste. Try to avoid buying more food than you need. Instead of big hauls at the grocery store, have frequent trips every few days. Remember to use up all the food you purchased during the last trip before buying more groceries. Also, make a list of items that you need to buy and stick to that list. This will help you reduce leftovers, save food and money.

And not to say at least, you can make a pizza out of almost anything?

Monday 31 May, we held our first “TotalCtrl webinar” on digitization and green technology. Here we wanted to go deeper into how the technological landscape in municipal Norway looks like today and why digitization is important for sustainable development in the public sector. During the webinar, Charlotte Aschim (CEO, TotalCtrl) and Nam Vo (Project Manager, TotalCtrl) shared their experiences with green technology and their work in the fight against food waste.

The technological landscape in municipalities today
We have noticed that Norway is behind our neighboring countries Denmark, Sweden and Finland when it comes to digitization and technological development in municipalities. A lot of people might associate new technology with something that is time- and resource consuming, and are skeptical of new things they do not know. This makes the implementation of new technology even more difficult. We see that it is especially the smaller municipalities that is behind when it comes to new technology and digitization. A survey conducted by SINTEF with 340 municipalities shows that it is easier to implement new technology in the large municipalities than in the small and medium-sized ones. Much of this may be due to lack of resources and expertise.

Challenges in kindergartens, and nursing homes
We see that the older generation work at nursing homes, where one can imagine that these do not absorb new technology as well as the younger generation, and rather want the old routines that have worked in all years. The kindergartens we have worked with, on the other hand, have a greater knowledge of environment and sustainability. Several kindergartens are green flag certified, environmental lighthouse certified, health-promoting kindergartens, environmental kindergartens and / or BREEAM certified. One of the reasons for this may be because there are more young people working in the daycare sector who often stay up to date with what is going on in the technology world. But even in kindergartens, we see that they have challenges when it comes to manual routines, and that the use of pen and paper is still common practice. An example of this is seen when ordering food in kindergartens. Each department must check what they have in stock and write down what they will need so that the general manager can collect these notes to be able to order. This often leads to a lack of control, which in turn leads to food being thrown away … This could have been avoided if the kindergartens had better communication and control over what is in them at the various departments.

Ensure good integration of technological solutions in municipal Norway
Based on our experience from both private and public actors undergoing a digital shift, we see some clear similarities in what makes it work:
1. It is important to ally with a so-called “Champion”, ie. a person who is committed and has anchoring authority.
2. One must ensure that both time and money are allocated to the digital shift.
3. Planning, mapping and communication are extremely important factors!

Kommunenorge’s job ahead
The UN’s sustainability goals are becoming more important with each passing day, and aim to secure a future for our future children and grandchildren. Norway has imposed a number of goals on the municipalities that will be tried to be achieved by 2030, including halving food waste. Here we see that there is a great opportunity for municipal Norway to use digitization and green technology. It is important that the municipalities take the initiative, and use the knowledgeable companies out there who want to help.

After a great success with this webinar, our next webinar will have the theme “The digital kindergarten” which will be held in June.

Working in grocery stores during our studies, we became worried for the future. We witnessed tremendous amounts of food being wasted every day.

Together we started our company, TotalCtrl, with the goal of developing a digital tool that would help fight food waste while saving our customers time and money. It all started with the intention of helping grocery stores, as that was where we had first-hand experience with food waste, but after learning more about food waste we found that most of the food waste happened at the consumer level. According to research, you and I were to blame for enormous amounts of fully edible food being wasted every year. 40-50% of all food that is wasted is wasted by households, you, and me. And the reason for this is that we lack control over our inventory, we forget to use the food before it expires, we buy double, and it is a hazel using time to get better control and to be creative in regard to how to utilize existing items in recipes.

After extensive market research we found that the consumer was extremely interested in having a solution that would notify them prior to expiry dates, give them recipes based on inventory and digitize their kitchen. They were interested in this if it helped them save time and money. If it also helped reduce food waste, that would be a bonus, but not something the consumer was so concerned about – in late 2017. Charlotte learned how to code via YouTube and created a prototype of the solution and had it tested by over a 100 people. They loved it.

For us, TotalCtrl, it did not make sense to build such a solution for consumers as it would not make financial sense. So we sent out cold emails to all the online retailers in Norway. I think, at that time, it was about 12 players in the market. The second biggest online retailer in Norway, Handleriet.no, said: yes, this is something we would like to be part of. Together we formed the requirement of the Handleriet.no app.

It was a success. Handleriet.no was happy and TotalCtrl had proven that the technology worked. The solution got a lot of attention and was also ranked as one of the most innovative digital retail solutions, alongside Amazon and Walmart by Retail Insider, but despite increased revenue, Handleriet.no had to close shop in August 2019. Running an online retailer in Norway is hard, and the costs to big to handle. This meant the end of the Handleriet.no app, but not the end of TotalCtrl.

The goal moving forward is to scale the TotalCtrl Home solution globally, ensuring that all consumers plan better, use and purchase food smarter.

Kindergartens are responsible for about 12% of all food waste produced in the public sector. Is there any way to solve it? Today we introduce a few tips on how to successfully reduce food waste in Kindergarten.

Scale your leftovers

This is the key step in the food waste reduction process. Data collection gives you an overview and helps you to keep an eye on the progress.

Kids are conscious and eager to learn about new things. Involve them in the process and show how to measure food waste. Analyze food loss and what kind of food is mostly discarded in your kindergarten. Think about what leftovers could be reused and how.

Few examples?

• Salmon leftovers can be eaten the next day on breakfast with a sandwich or salad.

• Vegetables can be used in omelets

• Dry bread can be turned into croutons

Education and practice

Organize workshops and talk about childrens’ food preferences. Ask what they like or dislike about meals in kindergarten. Maybe there is something that you can improve in the meal plan and make them eat willingly.

Simplified recipes and teach kids how to create a shopping list. It’s the first step to establish good grocery-shopping habits early.

If you have the possibility, take children to the kitchen and show them how food is stored and where you keep fruits, vegetables, and other products.

Implementing inventory software

It is still very common that inventory management in public institutions is very time-consuming and done manually with pen and paper.

TotalCtrl has a solution that reduces the time spent on food management and helps to cut costs and reduce food waste. Through our digital tool TotalCtrl Inventory, you can notice a real difference in the time spent on stocktaking and you can finally focus on the children – because they are the most important ones in kindergarten 😉

Food waste is one of the biggest tragedies of our time. We use the natural environment and human effort to produce food and nearly 30% of what we produce goes to the trash bin.
Food leftovers that go to the landfill emit significant amounts of methane and carbon dioxide which contribute to increasing greenhouse gas emissions. It also affects the landscape that we live in. Each of us has an impact on the amount of food wasted, But municipalities hold the power to change the way we handle the waste.

Let’s have a look on what your municipality can do about food waste:

Recycling systems

Providing proper recycling for a municipality is a necessity, but what specifically can one do with leftovers? Food leftovers can be turned into bioenergy during the decomposition process. Cooperation with food waste management companies is an efficient method to ensure that all of the organic leftovers will be turned into bioenergy.

Educational campaigns

Providing educational campaigns amongst society and especially at schools is crucial. Increased awareness will turn into less food waste generated by households. This is a long-term plan, but it’s totally worth investing in it!

Cooperation between Government and Food Industry

The Food Industry is responsible for 46% of food loss. Therefore, cooperation between the industry and the authorities is extremely important. The government should be the leading force in executing change, by setting goals and introducing laws and regulations. An important aspect is financing support in the introduction of sustainable technologies and supporting initiatives undertaken by industry.

Food banks

Food banks collect food from entrepreneurs and supermarkets. They store it in warehouses or hand it over immediately if it is food with a short use-by date. Food banks donate food to aid organizations that run shelters or deliver food packages to the people in need.

Introducing food inventory management Systems in public institutions

The biggest contributors to food waste in the public sector are elderly care centers with as much as 71% of the waste and 12% of both schools and kindergartens. Those amounts can be significantly reduced by implementing suitable inventory software.

With TotalCtrl Inventory, you can reach the goal of reducing food waste and have a real impact on the future of our planet!

Cooking and preparing food is one of the most common activities we do at home. According to statistics, an average European spends 1 hour daily on meal preparation and 1 hour 45 minutes on eating every day. That’s a lot! One of the things you can do to help yourself in this daily task is good pantry organization. 

In this article, you will find tips on how to organize your pantry and how to store dry food properly to extend its freshness

Products such as flour, oats, seeds, pasta, and rice should be kept at room temperature, so you can easily keep them in kitchen cabinets and drawers. It’s very important to conserve dry products from moisture and insects. The best solution for that is an airtight plastic container or glass jar. You can use glass jars and bottles that you already have at home or buy new ones. 

Except for the appearance of the pantry, there are few important technical issues you should be aware of.

Make sure to finish all that you have, before refilling containers, so this way you will avoid the situation when the container is half full with fresh product and a half with one that expires soon. 

Choose the size of the container according to your needs. Products that you use often, store in big containers, and those ones you use rarely in small ones instead.  

The expiration date of dry products is usually long, but always make sure how much is left while buying them. 

Keep dry products away from the oven and dishwasher. This type of devices will heat food unnecessarily 

How to store seasonings?

Seasonings just like other dry products are good to store in dry, dark, and cool places. The best solution is to pour spices from paper packages that don’t protect them from moisture into airtight containers. If you choose small glass jars, it will be easier for you to search for specific spices when needed. 

How long are seasonings kept fresh? Ground spices should not be stored for more than six months and the storage time of unground spices is longer. However, the best way is to check for freshness by the smell.

Kitchen moths – unwelcome guests in your kitchen. 

We usually bring them from the store. So after opening the package make sure if the contents look and smell ok. It’s very difficult to get rid of them and usually ends up throwing out absolutely all of your kitchen stock. 

Would you like to live more sustainably, but you don’t know how to start?  Wasting food is one of the biggest environmental problems. According to statistics, food waste produces 6% of global CO₂  emissions and the food industry emits 26% of global CO₂ emissions.

In this article, you will find 6 tips on how to reduce food waste in your daily life.

1. Plan your grocery shopping and avoid overbuying

Most of us have a habit of buying more products than we actually need. Let’s change it! Reorganize your grocery shopping and start by creating a list of products that you are using and like the most. Before you go shopping, try to do an inventory of what you already have in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. 

Check the “best before” dates when you buy the products and make sure you will use them before they expire

It might be difficult, but try to avoid buying more products than you need. It’s better to go to the grocery store frequently than once a week. Another way to keep track of groceries is by using grocery inventory apps.

Read more about Grocery Shopping Hacks

2.   Keep leftovers

If you cook frequently and have small amounts of leftovers, put them in the glass container. Too much potion for dinner? You can eat it the next day. Did you cook too much rice? You can add it to the next lunch.

More ideas on what to do with leftovers

3.   Keep tops, stalks, peels, and do the Vegetable Broth

 Do you peel vegetables? Then don’t throw the skin. These leftovers have power! Many nutrients and minerals are located just under the skin. From these leftovers, you can prepare amazing Vegetable Broth and then use it as a base for soup

Check the recipe

4.  Choose a smaller plate

Do you know that the size of your plate can change your perspective on how much you eat? 

You can fill up your big plate and don’t even realize you overeating. Change your plate and bowl for a smaller one and check if you still need more food after eating your portion.  

Research proves this step help reducing food waste by 25%.

5.  Say Hello to your freezer

Freezing is the best way of preserving food. 

If you have cooked too much and don’t want to eat the same meal for a week, just freeze it! Divide the meal into portions, put in bags or containers, and leave it in the freezer. 

What else can you save before spoiling by freezing? Fruits, veggies, bread, meat, greens, and herbs

6.  Blend it!

Too many fruits in your pantry?

You can save them from spoiling by making a smoothie! You don’t need any recipe, you can mix whatever you have and whatever you want. 

There are many simple methods on how to save food, those were only a few examples. Remember that small changes to your daily habits can make a big impact not only on our planet but also on your pocket. Try pantry inventory software.

Good luck!

Globally ⅓ of all food produced is wasted every year which translates to a cost of €1,1 trillion. Food is lost all throughout the value chain and restaurants are accountable for 33% of food wasted. This has a significant toll on the environment and also on restaurants as businesses. On average, the cost of avoidable food waste at restaurants is €1,10 per meal.

Here are some tips to reduce food waste and make your restaurant more sustainable.

Food Waste Prevention

Track your food waste

The most important step to start focusing on reducing food waste at your restaurant is to identify how much and which food is in fact wasted. Counting and weighing your food waste will give you an idea of how much food waste costs for your business. It is important to count your inventory and how much of it is wasted so you can find out how to solve the issues which lead to throwing away food at your restaurant. 

Identifying the type of food waste

Pre-consumer waste is food wasted which doesn’t leave the kitchen such as vegetable peels which is unavoidable. However, pre-consumer waste also includes rotten ingredients which can be avoided through an improved storage system. 

Post-consumer waste is food wasted after it has reached the consumer. This includes leftovers which are not eaten which is usually caused by over-portioning. Through portion control, you can prevent wasting food and by serving smaller portions, or giving the option of ordering different portion sizes, more ingredients will be available for you to cook more dishes with the ingredients you already have. 

Analyse your menu

Another reason your restaurant could be wasting large amounts of food is your menu. If you notice that certain dishes often come back to the kitchen with a lot of leftover food, it might be worth removing it from the menu.

Try to incorporate the same ingredients in several dishes on your menu so that you reduce the variety of ingredients you have to buy and in order to be able to use leftover ingredients for different dishes.

Store food correctly

In order to reduce pre-consumer waste it is important to make sure you are storing your ingredients correctly and at the right temperatures. About 21% of restaurant food waste is spoiled food. A stock rotation system FIFO – First In, First Out – prevents food going bad. It ensures that the newer stock is placed behind older stock, and older stock is picked first when used. 

Read more about storing food.

Digitise your restaurant inventory management

If you feel like you are spending time and money managing delivery control, inventory, expiration dates, price variations, stock count and reporting and you waste a lot of food, consider digitising your restaurant inventory management system. 

With TotalCtrl restaurant software you can:

• save time
• gain control
• improve efficiency
• boost profitability
• enhance your brand image

What to do with your food waste

Although you may already follow all of these tips in order to reduce food waste at your restaurant, some food waste is unavoidable. Here are some of the best ways to deal with your food waste.

Pack up leftovers for customers

Around 34% of restaurant food waste is food left over on the customers’ plates. Offer to pack up leftover food for your customers and make ‘doggy bags’ a routine at your restaurant. Then you will not have to deal with the waste.

Recycle

Work with a responsible food waste management company. This way, the waste will end up being recycled and not end up on a landfill. This is better for the environment as the waste is dealt with organically. 

Donate leftovers

If you have leftover ingredients that may not be edible by the next time you are able to cook with it, consider donating it to local charities so it does not go to waste. 

Invest in a food waste processor

There are many different types of food waste processors. One of them is a food waste tank which is a tank you can place in your restaurant. It deals with food waste in a sustainable way. Food waste tanks grind and decompose food and retain the energy and biogas released in the process of decomposition. 

Benefits: 

• Fully automatic operation
• Electronic reporting system 
• Hygienic – confines odors and contaminants
• Saves space – eliminates temporary waste storage in kitchens
• Cost efficient
• Reduced need for food waste collection service
• Retains energy and biogas

Waste-to-energy process

Food waste tanks can serve as a waste-to-energy process as the biogas naturally produced during the decomposition of food waste can be used to generate energy. Biogas is an environmentally friendly source of energy production as it reduces the release of dangerous levels of methane and reduces the reliance on fossil fuels for energy. Biogas can be used as an energy source in your restaurant. This can save money and make use of food waste. 

There are many ways to prevent and reduce restaurant food waste and these were just a few. Food is wasted all throughout the value chain with restaurants being responsible for a significant amount of it. Help protect the environment and your business through implementing some of our suggestions.

Read more about food waste. 

Read more about turning food waste into cash.