Food waste reporting is becoming mandatory for larger businesses, but it's useful even when it's not required. A regular report forces discipline in measurement, provides accountability, and creates the documentation you'll need when regulations expand.
Here's how to build reports that actually serve a purpose.
Internal vs External Reporting
Internal reports are for operational decision-making. They should be frequent (weekly or monthly), detailed, and focused on actionable insights.
External reports are for stakeholders—investors, customers, regulators, sustainability certifiers. They're typically annual, higher-level, and focused on outcomes and trends rather than operational detail.
Both matter, but they serve different purposes. Don't try to create one report that does everything.
The Internal Report Structure
A useful internal waste report includes:
Summary metrics. Total waste (kg), waste percentage, waste cost. Month-to-date and year-to-date figures. Comparison to previous period and target.
Category breakdown. Prep, plate, spoilage—whatever categories you track. Trends by category reveal whether issues are in production, service, or purchasing.
Top wasted items. The specific foods appearing most in waste. This is where action happens—every item on this list should have an explanation or a plan.
Variance analysis. What explains changes from the previous period? Higher covers? Menu changes? Staff changes? Events?
Action items. What are you going to do differently based on this data? A report without actions is just documentation.
Keep it short. One page is ideal, two pages maximum. If no one reads it, it doesn't matter how comprehensive it is.
The External Report Structure
External stakeholders want different information:
Methodology. How do you measure waste? What's included, what's excluded? What standards do you follow (FLW Protocol, WRAP methodology)?
Baseline and trend. Where did you start, where are you now? Year-over-year improvement is the story most stakeholders want.
Absolute and normalised figures. Total waste in kg or tonnes, but also waste per cover or waste as percentage of food purchased. Normalised figures allow comparison across different sized operations.
Composition overview. High-level breakdown (not item-level detail). What types of food are you wasting?
Destination. Where does waste go? Landfill, composting, anaerobic digestion, animal feed? The disposal route matters for environmental impact.
Initiatives and outcomes. What actions did you take? What results did they achieve?
Targets and commitments. What are you aiming for? Are you aligned with SDG 12.3 or other frameworks?
Following the FLW Protocol
The Food Loss and Waste Protocol is the international standard for measurement and reporting. If you're reporting externally, aligning with it adds credibility.
Key FLW Protocol principles:
Define your scope clearly. What operations are included? What food types? Pre-consumer versus post-consumer waste?
Use consistent methodology. Direct measurement (weighing) is most accurate. Proxies and estimates should be documented and explained.
Account for destination. Distinguish between landfill, recovery (composting, AD), and reuse (donation, animal feed).
Report transparently. Include enough methodological detail that someone could replicate your approach.
You don't need to be perfect. The protocol allows for estimation and uncertainty. But you do need to be transparent about what you measured and how.
Common Reporting Mistakes
Mixing methodologies. Switching from estimation to direct measurement mid-year makes trends meaningless. Be consistent, or clearly explain methodology changes.
Excluding inconvenient waste. Only reporting easy-to-measure categories while ignoring others. If you exclude something, document why.
Normalising incorrectly. "Waste per cover" doesn't work if you're comparing a buffet (high food deployment per cover) to à la carte. Choose metrics that fit your operation.
Claiming improvement without baseline. "We reduced waste by 30%" is meaningless without knowing the starting point and methodology used to measure it.
Over-precision. Reporting to multiple decimal places implies accuracy that probably doesn't exist. Round appropriately.
Building the Reporting Habit
Reporting is useless if it's a one-off effort for an annual sustainability report. Build it into regular operations:
Weekly data capture. Even if you only report monthly, capture data weekly. It's more accurate and creates smaller, manageable tasks.
Monthly internal review. A standing agenda item in operations meetings. What did the waste data show? What are we doing about it?
Quarterly trend analysis. Look at multi-month patterns. Seasonal effects, menu change impacts, longer-term progress.
Annual external report. Compile the year's data into stakeholder-ready format.
The effort of good reporting decreases dramatically once systems are established. The first report is hard; the tenth is routine.
Documentation and Audit Readiness
As regulations tighten, expect auditors to scrutinise waste data. Keep:
- Raw data (daily weights, item logs)
- Methodology documentation
- Calibration records for scales
- Any estimation approaches and assumptions
- Action plans and outcome tracking
You probably won't need all this. But when someone asks how you calculated a number you published three years ago, you'll be glad you kept records.
Calculate potential savings from waste reduction, or talk to us about building waste reporting into your operations.