With the hosepipe ban officially declared and the driest start to the first half of the year since 1929, it may take more than the avoidance of garden watering or the washing of the car to save our scarce reserves and the worst water crisis most of us have ever known!
As a small regional catering business we rely on water across many aspects of our daily operations to ensure food hygiene as well as safe and clean working environments...indeed across the hospitality sector water usage and the reduction of this valuable resource is another part of our environmental challenge....just rinsing the fresh fruit and vegetables every morning from a large open tap can have a flow of up to 40 litres per minute!
Many hotels and restaurants that have larger kitchens often scrape food into a channel that has a constant flow of water prior to going through a commercial dishwasher system and many operators are looking at ways to ensure that this can only be activated when required and or reducing the time period for the flow of each plate that requires to be cleaned.
At eatlunch we recycle 100% of our food waste to anaerobic digestion and we ensure that are dishwasher is fully loaded at all times on the most appropriate time and heat cycles to reduce both water consumption and energy costs.
By reviewing scheduling, catering businesses can often improve staff efficiency and reduce waste and water consumption such as allowing food to defrost naturally and safely in temperature controlled environments rather than using water to rapid defrost.
Prepared food by its very nature demands higher water usage to those foods cooked from chilled, although with our growing awareness towards healthier eating and better use of fresh local ingredients, this may present a different set of challenges as we strike the balance across a range of energy and resource needs.
READ MORE ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES >
