Experimenting in a small independent restaurant is a completely different proposition to driving change in a large restaurant chain where systems and supply chains are firmly in place, staff have been trained on specific tasks, consistency is required across hundreds, even thousands, of locations and avoiding reputational damage is paramount. Large catering operations require a different approach to becoming circular. Organisations such as UK-based Sustainable Restaurants Association (SRA) who, with their sustainability framework and large network of food service players, have been instrumental in helping ideas replicate and scale up to this size of operation. IKEA, an Ellen Macarthur Foundation member, demonstrates what this could look like in practice.
IKEA has approximately 400 stores in almost 50 countries. Their restaurants feed about 660 million people each year and serve approximately 2 million meatballs every day. The Swedish furniture giant takes a number of different approaches to improve health outcomes and circularity in their food business. Innovation in ingredient choices as well as the creation of alternative versions of established classics, such as the iconic meatball or hotdog, is one lever they use. The key challenge is to attain or exceed the tastiness of the original, but use ingredients such as lentils, carrots, kale, and quinoa, that are better for the health of their customers and help food resource production stay within planetary boundaries in relation to key issues such as carbon dioxide emissions, chemical pollution, biodiversity etc.
Another tool associated with large catering operations is buying power. High-volume procurement can be used as a powerful force for good if there is an underlying commitment to procure ingredients that are produced in a regenerative and equitable way. Several independent certification schemes have been set up to encourage such practices, including UTZ/Rainforest Alliance for coffee, tea, and cocoa or the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for seafood.
Finally, there is the use of technology, manifested in various ways such as redistribution of edible food, facilitation of smart pricing systems or the provision of simple measuring and monitoring systems. One such system is Winnow – a food waste monitoring and analytics software that has been installed in 35% of IKEA’s kitchens, leading to an estimated 1 million meals saved within just a few months. As an unexpected bonus, 50% of canteen workers exposed to this technology have been inspired to reduce food when they go home.
The last word must go to the chef-philosopher Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Massachusetts, and author of the Third Plate: Field Notes from the Future of Food. In Barber’s world, the restaurant is an engine that can improve soils, regenerate farmland, and unlock flavour. A few years ago, he returned to his grandparents’ farm after almost two decades, where he observed a precipitous reduction in soil fertility, due to a linear outflow of nutrients as a result of year-on-year hay harvesting.
Barber set about restoring the health of the soil, through the introduction of animals, rotational crops, and other regenerative farming practices. The food that was created as a by-product of improving soil and better management of the farmland, determined what was fed into and prepared in his restaurants. For example, introducing goats to stop the encroachment of surrounding woodland, meant that soon after braised goat shoulder found itself on the menu. Such a philosophy also saw him creating innovative dishes with crops, such as rye, that are traditionally associated with nutrient cycling rather than food crops.
Barber is convinced that healthy soils translate into great flavour, so his restaurant operations are designed around regenerating the soil. In his mind, it is simple: “To support the continual improvement of the whole system is the goal, and this leads to better flavour.”