Background to the Programme

In Ireland, the foodservice sector (incl. hotels and restaurants) wastes about 100,000 tonnes of food waste every year, costing an estimated €270 million!

On top of this obvious waste of money, food waste has other environmental and ethical problems.

Wasting food wastes all of the resources that went in to producing it. This includes everything from the fertiliser the farmer used and the packing while it was in transit, to the gas or electricity you or the chef used to cook it.

While businesses and households are throwing away food everyday, 8% of Irish people are at risk of food poverty.

The core aim of Savour Food was to support Irish foodservice businesses reduce food waste and save money. The programme, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was implemented by the Clean Technology Centre (CTC) at Munster Technological University (formerly Cork Institute of Technology). CTC has been providing innovative and effective resource efficiency solutions since 1992 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for food waste prevention.

The programme was first developed in partnership with SECAD Partnership CLG (SECAD) and Ballyhoura Development CLG.