Food Waste Legislation 2025
How to Reduce Your Food Waste Ahead of the New Rules
With the UK Government having recently announced new Food Waste Legislation, due to be implemented from March 2025, many businesses may now find themselves on the edge of the cut-off limit.
The new law will require organisations producing more than 5kg of food waste per week to separate it from other waste streams and organise for a specialist disposal team to collect it. This includes food by-products such as vegetable peels, eggshells, and animal bones.
With time to prepare before the legislation is brought into effect, now is the time for operators to really focus on reducing their waste – especially if they find themselves only just reaching the 5kg mark.
To start with, operators should prioritise products with longer shelf life, such as tinned, dried, or frozen products. Perishable items should follow a best-practice stock rotation system, such as first-in, first-out. This guarantees the oldest stock is used first to prevent it being forgotten and spoiling, contributing to the 5kg limit. Although this may be second nature to experienced hospitality professionals, it can take some time for new members of staff to fall into this routine – particularly with high staff turnover rates. To overcome this issue, managers could include ‘regular stock rotation checks’ into a customisable list of tasks via Monika’s Team Management function. Utilising Monika’s smart handheld PA device, these audible and visible task reminders can be checked off as staff complete them, so there’s no risk of essential tasks being missed or duplicated unnecessarily. By scheduling a daily stock check, any items with close use-by dates can be brought to the front of the fridge to guarantee they are used first.
Storing food at the correct temperature can also have a significant impact on quality and shelf life to reduce waste. Fresh meat should be kept between -2oC and +2oC, fresh fish between -1oC and +1oC, dairy at +2oC and +5oC, and other chilled food at around +5oC. Manual temperature monitoring is cumbersome and time consuming at best, and in a busy kitchen can often be overlooked. Monika’s discreet in-unit sensors cleverly simulate the temperature of perishable goods, giving operators greater accuracy unaffected by frequent door openings. Should a unit move outside a predetermined safe temperature range, staff receive alerts so they can quickly address the issue to avoid unnecessary waste – ultimately contributing to the 5kg cut-off.
Monika’s Enterprise Management capabilities enable managers to view the system’s centralised dashboard from any desktop and mobile – including while offsite. This is ideal for multi-site managers looking to compare performance across locations to identify training opportunities, helping optimise efficiency and keeping teams safe, smart, and connected.