Sources and credits
Where every outside number and rule on this site comes from, and who took the photos. The numbers kitchens weigh themselves are explained on How we count.
Numbers
6 stats that illustrate the crisis and opportunity of food waste in foodservice
4 to 10% of a foodservice kitchen's food purchases are wasted before they reach a diner, and 50% of a kitchen's food waste is overproduction. Used on the home page, Learn, the savings estimate, and the first training booklet.
Leanpath's own home page now gives a higher range, 5 to 15%. We use the lower figure.
The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Restaurants
114 restaurants in 12 countries cut kitchen food waste 26% on average within a year and saved $7 for every $1 they put in. Used on the home page, Learn, and the savings estimate.
Progress on the Plate: 2026 ReFED U.S. Food Waste Report
The U.S. had 70 million tons of surplus food in 2024. Used for the United States counter.
Food Waste by Sector: Foodservice
U.S. foodservice had 12.5 million tons of surplus food in 2024, worth $157 billion, linked to 63.6 million metric tons of CO2e. Used for the climate estimate in the crew app: about 2.5 kg CO2e per pound thrown out.
63.6 million metric tons divided by 25 billion pounds (12.5 million short tons) is 2.54 kg per pound. The figure covers growing the food through throwing it out.
1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted worldwide in 2022. Used for the world counter.
Each meal is roughly 1.2 pounds of food. Used to turn pounds into meals.
QuickFacts: Alabama; United States
Alabama has about 1.52% of the U.S. population (5,193,088 of 341,784,857). Used for the Alabama counter, which is our own estimate.
How each number is used is on How we count.
Kitchen tools
The rules and studies behind the planning, holding, tray, pantry, and temperature tools in the crew app. Rules change and health departments add their own, so check with yours before you donate or reuse food.
Potential for using guest attendance forecasting in Swedish public catering to reduce overcatering
In 21 Swedish school kitchens, cooking for everyone enrolled missed real attendance by 20 to 40%, while forecasts from past days missed by as little as 2 to 3%. A plain two-day average was the best forecast in 7 kitchens. With a 5% margin, one kitchen would have needed its backup about two days a school year. Used for the cook-to number in the Plan tool.
These are modeled on past attendance, not a trial where kitchens changed how much they cooked. The paper's best case, with a neural network, brought overcatering from about 16% to 5%.
Hotel Kitchen toolkit: Preventing food waste
Get updated guest counts 10 days out, 5 days out, and the day of, and plan one backup dish for extra guests instead of making extra of every dish. Used in the Plan and Event tools.
'Nudging' hotel guests to reduce food waste as a win-win environmental measure
In Norwegian hotel restaurants, smaller plates and a sign telling guests they could come back for more each cut food waste about 20%, with no drop in guest satisfaction. Used for the table cards and the sign comparison in the Event tool.
On 748 trays in nine Washington middle and high schools, scoring leftovers by eye in quarters (none, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, all) agreed closely with weighing for 87% of foods. Used for tray scores.
At two elementary schools, students offered sliced apples ate 2.48 times as much apple by weight, and students offered whole apples threw away 2.92 times as much. Used for the fix ideas on the tray scorecard.
Using a Taste-test Intervention to Promote Vegetable Consumption
A vegetable taste-test competition with 1,030 students made them 2 to 7.2 times as likely to eat the target vegetables at follow-up. Used for the fix ideas on the tray scorecard.
School and meal characteristics associated with plate waste in K-12 cafeterias in the United States
In WWF Food Waste Warrior data from 134 schools, schools that let students choose how much milk to take had 76% less milk waste than schools handing out cartons. Used for the fix ideas on the tray scorecard.
The data come from schools that chose to take part, so they show links, not proof of cause.
Guide to Conducting Student Food Waste Audits: A Resource for Schools
Sort tray waste into buckets by kind of food, subtract each empty bucket's weight, count the trays, track unopened items that could be donated, and repeat on a day with the same menu. Used for audit day.
How to Conduct a Food Waste Audit at Your School
Buckets for fruit, vegetables, milk, entrée, and other, plus a separate count of unopened and untouched items. Used for audit day.
Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-22-.01, Food Establishment Sanitation
Alabama adopts the 2013 FDA Food Code: hot food held at 135°F or above, cold food at 41°F or below, food held on time alone thrown out after 4 hours, cooked food used within 7 days counting the day it was made as day 1, and cooling from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours and to 41°F within 6 hours total. Used for the hold clock, labels, storage ranges, and the can-we-use-it check.
Food Donors Standard Operating Procedure
A model procedure for donating prepared food. Food from prep areas, coolers, or protected hot or cold holding can go. Self-serve buffet food and food held on time alone can't. Labels list where it came from, what it is, when it was cooked, and allergens. Used for the donate verdict and labels in the Line tool.
Alabama publishes no donation food safety guidance of its own, so we use North Carolina's as a model. Check with your health department.
The Use of Share Tables in Child Nutrition Programs (SP 41-2016)
Share tables can take unopened packaged food, whole fruit, and unopened milk kept at 41°F or below, with temperature logs for milk. What's left can be served at a later meal, given to children, or donated. Used for the share table.
Leftover Donation and Sharetable Resource
Food that needs temperature control comes off the share table within four hours of service, and records should say whether share table items were donated or thrown out, alongside the daily production records. Used for the share table and the production export.
Agency Membership Guidelines Packet
Partner agencies record temperatures daily for each freezer (0°F or below), fridge (35 to 41°F), and dry storage area (45 to 70°F). Soup kitchens keep a log of menus and the number served at each meal. A loss of USDA food worth $100 or more is reported to the food bank right away. Used for the temperature log, the forms, and the USDA checklist.
USDA Foods that spoil or are contaminated, infested, adulterated, or damaged are "out of condition" and get reported, and they should be handed out while still in good condition (250.14). Used for the USDA reasons in the Log and the use-first list.
Except on infant formula, date labels are about quality, not safety, and past-date food can be donated if it shows no signs of spoiling. Used for the can-we-use-it check.
Just How Long Is That Food Good?
A food bank shelf-life guide. Infant formula gets 0 days past its date and baby food gets no extension. Cans with swelling, dents along the seams, leaks, bulging ends, or rust that won't rub off get thrown out. Used for the can-we-use-it check.
U.S. Food Waste Policy Finder: Alabama
Alabama bars feeding most food scraps to pigs, with exceptions for bakery waste and dairy byproducts (Ala. Code § 2-15-211), and restricts selling or donating some foods past their date, including meat, infant formula, baby food, and food that needs temperature control. Used for the farm animal warning and the can-we-use-it check.
Photos
| Photo | By | License | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| A foil-lined bowl of chicken on a digital kitchen scale, beside the steel pans of a food line | Courtesy of Sai Vajaha | All rights reserved | Home |
| Sai Vajaha tonging chicken from the line into a bowl that sits on a kitchen scale | Courtesy of Sai Vajaha | All rights reserved | How it works |
| The Qdoba in Hoover, Alabama, at night, with a Now Hiring banner in the window | Courtesy of the Hoover Qdoba | All rights reserved | Home |
| Five people from the Hoover Qdoba crew standing behind the counter | Courtesy of the Hoover Qdoba | All rights reserved | Home |
| Orange peels falling out of a plastic bag against a blue sky | Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash | Unsplash License | Learn |
| Steel pans on a food line at close: two pans of rice, beans running low, an empty pan, and the last pieces of chicken | Courtesy of Sai Vajaha | All rights reserved | Learn |
| Sai Vajaha in a navy blazer, arms crossed | Courtesy of Sai Vajaha | All rights reserved | Sai Vajaha, Home |
| Hands holding a nearly empty steel pan over a lined trash bin in a back kitchen | Courtesy of Sai Vajaha | All rights reserved | Sai Vajaha |
| A cook slicing tomatoes on a red cutting board in a restaurant kitchen | Louis Hansel on Unsplash | Unsplash License | Training |
No photo on this site is AI-generated. Photos marked all rights reserved belong to the people who shared them and aren't covered by the open data license.
Fonts
Archivo by Omnibus-Type, IBM Plex Mono by IBM, Anek Telugu by Ek Type. All three are free under the SIL Open Font License and served from this site through Fontsource.
Trademarks
QDOBA is a trademark of its owner. Half Pan is an independent project and isn't affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Qdoba Restaurant Corporation. The Hoover Qdoba is the first kitchen to use it.
Open data
Numbers from kitchens that publish are free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download them on Kitchens and open data.