Everyone believes in waste reduction – it’s been drummed into us since childhood. And commercial foodservice has extra challenges with large quantities, food safety issues and customers who don’t eat everything on their plate. In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with Dianne McGrath of Watch My Waste, a large-scale survey of foodservice operators and and consumers.

The research is still underway, and already she’s found surprising information about the percentage of food purchases that end up in the garbage, why that happens, and how unaware most operators are of the scale of the problem. The consumer survey information is also interesting – preferences about portion sizes, left-overs and what’s served on a plate. Lots of great money-saving information in this very informative interview and on Dianne’s website.