U.S. EPA Sustainable Management of Food Tools

The U.S. EPA offers several tools for measuring and tracking the amount, type of, and the source of food and packaging waste. One of the topics discussed at the February Member Meeting.
By using EPA’s food waste assessment tools, food service establishments can:

• Save money by reducing over-purchasing and disposal costs
• Reduce environmental impacts
• Support efforts to eliminate hunger
• Increase tax benefits by donating food; and
• Support community waste reduction efforts.

The food waste assessment tools start off with a Guide for Conducting and Analyzing a Food Waste Assessment. The guide provides a step by step process. In addition to the guide is a waste calculator, tracking logs, and a Waste Reduction Model tool that can help organizations track and voluntarily report greenhouse gas emissions reductions from several different waste management practices.