YES! Finalist 2021

RBZ Wirtschaft . Kiel

Finalist for the region North

Winner of the 4th place

Food waste – not a good taste

The RBZ Wirtschaft YES! Team 2021 is introducing the project “food waste not a good taste”.

The estimated food waste on cruise ships can reach up to 30%. Food waste in general is a huge worldwide problem. Approximately 1.3 million tons of food are wasted each year ⁱ. We concentrated on the food waste on cruise ships to develop a tangible solution. Buffets are planned by the operator through a mixed calculation. By doing that many dishes are left behind by the guests because they may not like the food or they’re allergic to it. Cruise ships companies buy the food without consideration of the eating habits of passengers. The (buying) purchasing could be seen as irresponsible purchase of food that is partly wasted. The leftovers are either dumped into the sea, taken to biogas plants or turned into fish food. In addition to that energy gets wasted through dishes that are cooked but not eaten. We would like to take leftovers to organizations like “the Arche” which provides leftovers or food that is past its use-by date to people in need.
To make the change and protect fish and the climate, we need the help of all parties.
Therefore, we need to create an attractive option for passengers and at the same time the companies which use the concept have to get an advantage out of it. Like saving financial resources and most importantly, to save CO2 emissions. But how can we do it?

The biggest current problem are the buffets ⁱⁱ. It could happen that for every passenger a cruise company plans two eggs, 3 slices of bread and a portion of butter. But imagine if no passenger likes eggs… all the eggs would be thrown into the trash.
So, if a big client, a cruise line company or a hotel hired us, the first thing we’d do is collect data about the passengers’ food consumption while booking. The passengers are able to fill out a survey, in which they are asked about allergic reactions, preferences and taboos because of religion. For example pork for Muslims. As a reward for helping to save the environment, passengers get dessert coupons or movie tickets. After analyzing everything, we put together a suitable basket for each passenger, without eggs, for those who do not like eggs.

Now as a result, companies order much less, which saves money.
The production of food comes with a large amount of resources and CO2 emissions. Those would be saved too.
Furthermore, we want to stock unused products or leftovers, keep them fresh and sell them for much less. This can be compared to the app ‘2 good 2 go’ It is a good example, and is basically the same concept.
To explain the model a little further, we think that customers would have a relaxed journey without the need to decide: Think of a family with four children and the parents have to pick a dish for every child having in mind their preferences. If they could decide before the start of the journey, they wouldn’t have any stress.
Also they have a good feeling, because they have done something good for the environment, and they got a special benefit.
If cruise lines are interested, we would recommend creating green restaurants with better service, better views and more atmosphere just for the passengers who participated in the survey.
On the corporate side, as mentioned earlier, we saved money and created a green footprint, which is important for a good image these days, especially in the cruise industry.
For us and the concept, there are a lot of advantages too. Our income streams are varied:
First, the money we get from Food Selling and second the paychecks of the cruise companies.

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ⁱ Gill, V.(2021). BBC News: Food Waste: Amount thrown away totally 900 million tonnes. Retrieved July 27, 2021, from: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56271385

ⁱⁱ Pictures taken from: CC by 4.0 Pixabay.com