New Zealand cafes and restaurants throw away over 24,000 tonnes of food annually. That’s 2.8 tonnes per business and enough food waste to fill 20 Olympic sized swimming pools.
Order errors and over ordering are one of the largest sources of avoidable food waste for restaurants. With venues having an average of 15 plus suppliers, and ordering from them in 15 different ways at all hours of the day and night, it’s not surprising that this is the case.
In a quest to reduce food waste and support the New Zealand hospitality industry in the wake of Covid, Fresho, an online ordering and order management software platform for wholesale food and beverage businesses, has adapted their ordering software to help restaurants and cafes minimise their food waste and better manage food costs.
Used by suppliers throughout the country to efficiently manage their end to end order process, Fresho is New Zealand’s largest wholesale ordering platform with more than 4,000 venues ordering online.
“Covid made us rethink how we could use our software to help the food service industry. Food waste reduction has always been at the core of our purpose so extending our platform for food service venues was a natural extension of our business.” says Fresho’s NZ General Manager Sarah Rumbold.
The pandemic has had a severe impact on the hospitality industry – with a 40% plus drop in sales for the period from April – June year on year, and ongoing effects due to closed borders and Alert Level changes.
With a few tweaks to the software, Fresho’s ‘All-Ordering’ service is available free of charge to restaurants and cafes throughout New Zealand, allowing them to consolidate their ordering in one place, reducing errors and food costs.
With orders centralised and tracked chefs no longer have to check emails, text messages, supplier portals, and jotted notes to keep track of their many food orders, all while trying to run a fast paced kitchen.
The Fresho team loads the venue’s suppliers onto the platform so chefs can place all their orders online in one system. This means they can easily keep track of what is coming, who’s ordered for the day and avoid over-ordering.
Gareth Stewart, Executive Chef of The Nourish Group is a fan of the software. “Having seen the positive benefits the Fresho app can bring to a professional kitchen, I’ve implemented it as the leading software across The Nourish Group. Not only does it bring cost, time and waste efficiencies,the app is easy to use and opens new avenues to exciting local ingredients.” he comments.
Fresho has made this offering free so it’s accessible to all venues, helping kitchens run more smoothly while reducing food waste at the same time. It’s their small contribution helping the hospitality industry get back on its feet, and in a sustainable fashion.
