Food waste in the airline industry

[squashyhat]

I've recently done a couple of long-haul flights and it got me wondering about food waste on planes. Apart from it being a major logistical exercise, obviously the passenger numbers will be known, but most airlines offer a choice of main meal - what happens to the ones which aren't used? And the parts of meals which aren't eaten? For example I was given a bread roll and butter in packaging which I didn't open - are they just thrown away?

I guess nobody goes through the waste bags the cabin crew fill, but it must be a huge waste of both food and money. Can anyone who works in the industry shed any light?

I don’t know what it’s like now, but I was cabin crew decades ago and all leftovers were thrown out. We weren’t allowed to take any such ‘waste’, e.g. bread rolls, little cheese or butter portions, home either - if we were caught with any it was seen as theft and was a sackable offence.

Even in my early 20s the waste really grieved me.

My DD is cabin crew, not long haul though, and any food waste on board goes in the rubbish and is not sorted at all. In some airports the recycling collected is slung in with the rubbish as well.

I doubt there is huge amounts of over catering, I’ve often been towards the end of the round and been told there’s no choice. That said the amount that’s left as god is gross is a different story, but as it’s been served out I guess there is no option to recycle.

Flights are terrible for disposable waste all round. I imagine the packaging, containers and plastic cutlery are far worse in waste terms.

Leftover food from flights has to be incinerated due to the (tiny) risk of food borne diseases that affect agriculture.

I’ve a friend who works on private jets.. they get to scoff leftover caviar and champagne….

Also 80% of the meals are the same, you only chose your main so it should any over catering probably largely impacts the mains.

Agree with a couple of points upthread:

The accountants don’t like ordering extra meals that aren’t going to get consumed (cost to purchase, store, and also fuel used to carry) so on a lot of airlines not everybody gets a full choice, if you’re one of the last to choose in a cabin the menu may well be reduced and even the “chicken or beef” may be off, even in the premium cabins…which is tough on the cabin crew who have to handle the consequences

Many places any waste food has to be carefully disposed of due to local health/food stuff regs.

I’m long haul cabin crew.
With the hot part of the meal there will usually only be a handful of spares.
At the end of every flight I write up if we ran out of one of the options and then a ratio is collated of what percentage of each option typically works best.
When the crew clear in the dirty trays they will often separate off any sealed items that haven’t been touched ( bread rolls, cheese, biscuits etc) and we put them in a box in the galley and if anyone comes looking for snacks in between meal services we can offer them.
We can eat any of the leftover food from business and economy and are also provided with a cart full of food for the crew, this is typically where most of the wastage happens, as it’s not as nice as the passenger options so we tend to eat them instead.
Flying into the states all leftover fruit and milk products have to put in a special “agricultural bag” to be incinerated.

@TickleMyPickle my DD isn't very keen on crew food!!

Thanks for all your interesting replies.

I was glad to see all the drinks containers and cutlery were made from recyclable/sustainable materials - they do seem to be cutting back on use of plastic - but if it all gets incinerated anyway it's not much of an improvement.

I must admit I never thought about what the crew might get. Not that I imagine you have much time to eat anyway, although I can picture the flight deck crew scoffing while the autopilot does the hard work. The private jet gig sounds ace!

Not that I imagine you have much time to eat anyway although I can picture the flight deck crew scoffing while the autopilot does the hard work.

Sigh......🙄....and that's the thanks you get for trying to be helpful...😬

Anyhow in the spirit of continuing to be helpful FWIW crew on both sides of the flight deck door learn PDQ to get pretty adept at finding time to eat, most especially on short haul.

On Long Haul it tends to be a slightly different matter and pretty much everybody can get some time off task at some point in the flight to eat.