Reducing Food Waste in Healthcare: Better Care, Sustainability and Cost Savings

Its estimated that up to 18% of food in hospitals is wasted, which is the equivalent to 1 in every 6 meals. As well as a significant financial costs to the hospitals it also has an environmental impact and can affect the NHS’s goal for sustainable healthcare.

Three reasons why reducing food waste in hospitals is so important:

•    Improving patient care – tailored meal ordering ensures patients receive the food they want and need, reducing untouched meals. Food that is not eaten also has no nutritional value and is not supporting a patient's recovery. 
•    Lowering environmental impact – As well as the food being thrown away, carbon emissions generated through growing, transporting and preparing a meal are wasted.
•    Saving costs – food waste costs the NHS millions of pounds a year, therefore less waste will lead to significant cost savings.

What can be done?

There are a few ways food waste can be reduced, and one of the main solutions is to introduce an electronic catering system.

By using an electronic catering system, hospitals and healthcare providers can:

•    Improve top-up and stock control, which reduced over ordering
•    Reduce plate waste, as patients get their first choice of meal.
•    Better timed orders mean orders are taken closer to the meal service times leading to more accurate meal preparation. 
•    Eliminating paper and digitising the process can save up to £15k annually. 
•    Better inventory management as the inventory is linked to the ward usage data.
•    Orders automatically collected and sent straight to the kitchen save staff time and reduce the risk of manual errors. 

As well as these solutions to cut food waste CO₂  dashboards can also be used to contribute to the NHS’s sustainability goals by: tracking the carbon footprint of each meal, analysing CO₂  data alongside meal popularity to replace or adjust high-carbon dishes and reducing waste across through the whole process to lower the overall carbon footprint of the hospital. 

Reducing waste across the NHS is more than a cost saving measure – it's vital in improving patient care and securing a sustainable future for healthcare. Systems like Synbiotix X-Cater enable hospitals to tackle waste at every level, making a measurable difference in efficiency, sustainability and patient satisfaction.

For more information on how Synbiotix can help you get in touch at sales@synbiotix.com or visit our website at www.synbiotix.com