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Restaurants face increased food wastage in Tier 3

The new tiered restrictions in London, Essex and Hertfordshire could see millions of pounds worth of food and drinks get thrown away, according to The Guardian.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive for UKHospitality, told the paper that as with previous short-notice lockdowns, the new tiered restrictions will cause a “glut of wasted food and drink”.

She added: “It’s not possible to just turn on and off a hospitality business. Beer will go down the drain, fresh food will have to be thrown away and there will be impacts throughout the supply chain of cancelled orders. This stop-start approach to hospitality is disastrous.”

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Ben Tish, the culinary director of the Sicilian-style Norma in Fitzrovia and the Game Bird at the five-star Stafford hotel in Green Park, commented to The Guardian: “Sadly there’s going to be an immense amount of food wasted across the restaurants in the capital.

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“We were also booked up on Christmas Day at the Stafford, with about 100 guests due and had already ordered and received 100 lobster tails costing about £25 each. Those will freeze but not for long. We have also got a lot of special ingredients which we love to serve during the festive period – truffles, for example. These don’t freeze, so that’s another financial loss.”

On Thursday, the restaurant will reportedly be sending staff home with excess food from the kitchen, as well as donating the additional stock to the local food bank.

Food redistribution charity, FareShare, which has previously partnered with supermarkets and delivery services like Deliveroo told the paper it will aim to “collect and redistribute” leftover food quickly to avoid it all being wasted.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive for FareShare, told The Guardian: “We have more than doubled the amount of food distributed across the UK since March to over 2 million meals each week.

“We have a robust infrastructure and more capacity than ever before, and as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 crisis we were ready to work immediately with the food industry and charities … to ensure that no good food goes to waste.”

 

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