Helping food businesses become sustainable

The environmental impacts of food have become more important to customers. How you source and process the food in your business can affect your appeal to customers as well as your running costs.

The information below should help you to:

• offer more sustainable food and products to customers
• reduce energy use
• reduce waste.

Some of this advice can save your business money too.

Food and suppliers

• Source food and other products from local suppliers to support the local economy and reduce environmental impacts.
• Buy seasonal food where practical, as it is likely to be fresher and have more flavour/texture.  Try to avoid perishable foods which will have been flown into the UK.
• Offer more plant-based or vegan food and reduce the number of foods of animal origin (meat, dairy products, and eggs).  Sustain: A roadmap for less and better meat and dairy provides more information.
• Choose foods produced to high environmental and animal welfare standards, such as free-range, organic, or Red Tractor certified standards.
• Use Fairtrade and fairly traded products where possible.
• Avoid unsustainably produced palm oil & soya products.
• Buy sustainable fish and seafood with Marine Stewardship Council certification.  Use the Marine Conservation Society: Good Fish Guide to source sustainable fish to eat and avoid endangered species.

Energy

• Encourage staff to plan their meal preparations to minimise the number of times the fridge/freezers are opened.
• Buy and use the most energy efficient equipment possible, particularly for items that are used frequently.  Check and service equipment regularly.
• Plan meals to maximise use of ovens and minimise the time equipment is on but not being used.
• You can see more tips and suggestions on the Energy Saving Trust at Energy Saving Trust: top five tips to save energy in the kitchen
• You may be able to get specific energy advice and grant support from Business Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP)

Waste

• Use good stock rotation to minimise food wastage by using Gov.uk: Food and drink waste hierarchy: deal with surplus and waste
• Consider donating surplus or short dated food to support programmes.
• Avoid over packaged goods and try to buy food in recyclable packaging where possible.
• Ensure your staff know how to sort the recyclable waste on site and check what your waste contractor can recycle.
• Clearly label recycling bins in public and staff areas and try to avoid unrecyclable plastic waste.
• Sign up to our single use plastics pledge at Sign up to our single use plastics pledge
• Offer and promote free tap water.  Consider signing up to the Refill mobile app
• Try to minimise deliveries and packaging for long life products and buy in bulk, using your storage space correctly.  This also applies to non-food products such as cleaning and hygiene materials.
• Promote your successes and advertise your sustainable choices to customers.

To find out more about Climate Change visit our Climate County Durham website.

Try to let your customers know about your sustainability credentials.