Minimal food wasted after New Year's Eve parties, say Dubai hotels

Dubai - The UAE has been tackling the food waste problem through initiatives such as the UAE Food Bank, launched in 2017.

Waste-conscious menu planning has seen minimal food loss across some hotels in Dubai, following the New Year's Eve celebrations across the city.
Essa Hassan, logistics manager for the UAE Food Bank, said that by early afternoon on Tuesday, they had received no leftover food from any of its partner hotels.
"So far we have had no food come through from the hotels. They usually contact us the morning after such events like New Year's Eve and Ramadan, and then we arrange to collect the leftover food, but this year there has been no contact," said Hassan.
Several executive chefs across Dubai said there is a reason for this.
Following the UAE's drive to cut back on food waste, with the aim to reduce the volume of waste per capita to 900g a day as part of the National Agenda 2021, hotels are now trying to consciously reduce waste.
"We now manage our buffets in a different way. Much of the food is prepared via a live buffet station, that helps reduce waste as we cook to order. For New Year's Eve, some customers went for the buffet option but many of our covers for a la carte were pre-ordered, too, so we could prepare in advance. Much of the food we served can be prepared fresh, last minute." Girish Babu, head chef at Media One Hotel, told Khaleej Times.
"To avoid waste, we run a very tight ship, preparing only the necessary in advance. This year, we had little waste and we did not send any to the UAE Food Bank as the volumes were not high enough. It usually requires around 20 full portions of any dish, minimum, but we really only had salad and fresh shellfish leftover, which we would not pass on for health and safety reasons."
In total, the hotel had about six large leftover cakes, the remaining portions of which were dished out to staff. And with two restaurants catering to New Year's Eve-specific menus and two restaurants operating as normal, the hotel only had about "a kilo of mussels, some clams, and a kilo and a half of blue crab" left, which had to be binned.
The UAE has been tackling the food waste problem through initiatives such as the UAE Food Bank, launched in 2017. In the first quarter of 2018, about 230 tonnes of food from hotels, restaurants and supermarkets were collected from the Dubai Muncipality.
Cementing partnership agreements with stakeholders in the hospitality and food industries, the UAE Food Bank collects unconsumed food. But ultimately, the UAE wants its hospitality sector to harbour a behaviour of keeping waste at a minimum, if not at zero.
At the Sheraton in Mall of the Emirates, of the 235 covers served as part of its New Year's Eve menu, the leftover food amount was "not large enough to carry over to the UAE Food Bank".
"That's because we operate a waste management system to minimise food waste. On Monday evening, all food leftover was sent to the staff cafeteria, so it did not go in the trash," a representative from the chef's office said.
With little over "two kilos of salad, vegetables and fish leftover from the New Year's Eve covers", he said the hotel has been "implementing food reduction techniques", like individual servings and the use of cereal dispensers to align with the UAE's vision towards eliminating food waste through collaboration.
And though registered with the UAE Food Bank, Ashiv Nagi, executive sous chef at the Movenpick JBR, told Khaleej Times that following the New Year's Eve busy period, little food was wasted. Therefore, it was not sent to the food bank.
"Like cooking, reducing food waste has become a priority for our hotel chefs, so menus are carefully planned out to curb loss and the food items that are chosen can be made to order to cut large quantities going unused."
kelly@khaleejtimes.com
 
 

• Dubai