New findings from the Kai Keepers pilot show cafés and restaurants can significantly reduce food waste through practical, low-cost changes to everyday operations. This delivers both sustainability and business performance benefits.
Over 2.5 years, 120 hospitality businesses across Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty took part in the pilot, testing simple interventions designed to reduce food waste in real-world operating environments. The pilot was supported through funding by the Ministry for the Environment.
The findings show participating businesses reduced food waste by an average of 16.4% per cover, lowering waste from 134 grams to 112 grams per customer served. Across participating businesses, that equated to 5.3 tonnes of food waste avoided each month, preventing more than 6 tonnes of CO2-e emissions.
The programme addresses a significant industry challenge. Each year, Aotearoa’s cafés and restaurants generate nearly 25,000 tonnes of food waste, with an estimated 61% considered avoidable.
Four practical interventions were tested through the pilot:
- Flexible or reduced portion sizes
- Reusing preparation waste in new dishes
- Upselling at-risk stock to prevent spoilage
- Redirecting unsold food for staff meals
All four showed measurable results.
The findings also showed benefits beyond waste reduction, including improved stock management, stronger staff engagement, better operational awareness, and positive customer responses to sustainability-focused changes.
Importantly, the pilot found that simply measuring food waste and increasing awareness contributed to reductions — reinforcing the value of data, visibility and behaviour change alongside practical interventions.
These findings will help inform the next phase of Kai Keepers and support wider uptake across Aotearoa’s hospitality sector.
Reducing food waste doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. This pilot shows small operational changes can deliver measurable environmental and financial benefits for hospitality businesses.