Measuring is not a goal in itself. If you are reducing food waste in care, a few weeks of measuring leave you with a pile of figures and one question: what are we going to do differently? Below: how to read those figures, which measures have a track record in care and how to show that things are getting better.
First check that your figures are complete
Start with what is missing. If breakfast was not measured on two wards, waste there looks lower than it is. If many measurements were made without known purchases, the percentage is less precise.
So check three things first:
- Which meals were not measured on which wards?
- How many measurements used real purchase data, and how many an average?
- Are there unfinished measurements or failed photos?
Only once that picture is right do you compare meals and wards. If you see big gaps, keep measuring for another week first. How to set up a good starting measurement is covered in the step-by-step guide to a baseline measurement.
Read the figures by meal, type of leftover, ward and ingredient
A single overall percentage tells you whether there is a problem, but not where. For that, peel the figures back in four layers.
By meal
Start with which meal is the biggest source. In hospital research by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) from 2016, most waste came from the hot meal, and vegetables were the component thrown away most often. That need not be true for you. A nursing home with a hot lunch can have a very different pattern.
Suppose that at your location 23% of purchases comes back after dinner and 14% after lunch. Then you know where to start.
Not eaten or not served
This may be the most important distinction. Food that comes back on plates was not eaten. That points to taste, portion size, appetite or the moment of ordering. Food left in serving dishes and pans was not served. That points to cooking too much or sending too much to the ward.
The two call for very different measures. For plates, you talk to the ward and the dietitian. For pans and serving dishes, you talk to the kitchen and look at order quantities.
By ward
Put the wards side by side, and also look at the change since the previous period. A ward that is high but falling needs something different from a ward that is rising. Only compare wards that measured about equally completely.
By ingredient
Which ingredients come back, and after which meal? Does the custard mostly come back after the afternoon snack, or the bread mostly after breakfast? Those are concrete leads.
Ziekenhuis Geel, a hospital in Belgium, shows how this works. The team photographed plates and weighed the leftovers. The mashed potato portion then went from three scoops to two, and beetroot came off the menu. Over two years the kitchen adjusted every dish this way, and waste fell from 712 kilos a month in 2023 to 289 kilos in 2025.
Reducing food waste in care: measures that work
Practice examples and research keep pointing the same way: change the system, not just the scoop. And never make less food the goal. The goal is the right amount and the right dish.
Smaller portions, with second helpings available
After the outcry over a care home in Delft that planned to weigh out its residents' food, the Dutch minister for long-term care put it like this in 2023: serve smaller portions and give extra if someone is still hungry. That is the difference between reducing waste and rationing: anyone who wants more gets more.
The serving spoon matters too. WUR pointed out that serving is human work, and that whoever portions out food with service in mind does not want to give too little. A fixed portion scoop makes servings more even.
Adjusting the menu to what comes back
Dishes that keep coming back can be adapted or replaced. AZ Sint-Maria in Halle, a Belgian hospital, measured for two weeks and then reviewed the less popular menus that always left food on the plate. Together with other measures, that delivered 23% less waste at the repeat measurement a year later.
Ordering closer to mealtime
The shorter the time between choosing and eating, the better the choice matches appetite at that moment. WUR saw less waste the closer the ordering moment was to the meal. Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei dropped fixed mealtimes, varied portion sizes and let patients order at any time. Waste fell by a third and nutritional intake was maintained.
In Halle, the hospital asks patients in advance whether they want one portion or more, and the kitchen does not prepare a meal for a patient it knows in time is being discharged.
More choice, smaller rounds and help with eating
In 2025 the RIVM, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, listed what reduces waste and can also improve intake: more freedom in menu choice, electronic ordering at the bedside and nutrition assistance. Several smaller portions reduce waste too, provided they still deliver enough energy. Radboudumc serves small dishes in up to seven rounds, brought by a nutrition assistant, and stocks ward kitchens by bed occupancy. Its waste went from 35% to 11%.
In a nursing home, that often translates into serving at the table in the living room, instead of plates made up in the kitchen. More on that in Food waste in nursing homes: why elderly care is different.
Sharing the figures with the ward
Simply making waste visible helps. WUR described a simple measure from Radboudumc: a transparent waste bin in the kitchen. When staff see how much and what is thrown away, they become more careful about portioning and about how much is cooked. Figures per ward work the same way. Share them with the ward and the kitchen, not just with management, and show what changed after an adjustment.
Why plate leftovers also say something about residents' and patients' intake is covered in Plate waste is a care signal.
Change one thing at a time and keep measuring
If you introduce three measures at once, you won't know afterwards which one worked. Choose one change per meal or per ward, and follow the trend for a few weeks.
Look at percentages and grams per person, not at loose kilos. WUR warned that a change in kilos can also come from there happening to be more or fewer patients. A percentage of purchases largely corrects for that.
An example: on ward Tulp you decide to serve a smaller first portion of potatoes at dinner, with second helpings for anyone who wants them. The other wards change nothing yet. After four weeks you see whether Tulp goes down while the rest stays level. If so, you extend it to other wards.
Set a goal and measure again
For organisations working with the Milieuthermometer Zorg, the Dutch environmental certification for care organisations, the goal is already set. Requirement 7.3 asks you to measure and record kitchen waste, plate waste and banqueting at least once a year. Within two years of certification, waste may be at most 20% of purchased weight. For gold, prepared meals may additionally be at most 15%. The requirement also asks for an action plan based on the results, included in the plan for sustainable food (requirement 7.1).
For orientation: in an international analysis by Champions 12.3 from 2018, 86 catering sites, including hospitals, cut their food waste by an average of 36% in the first year. That is an average across very different organisations, not a promise. It does show that a substantial drop in the first year is achievable if you measure and adjust.
A workable rhythm looks like this:
- Measure a representative period as a starting point.
- Choose one or two measures per quarter.
- Look at the weekly trend and the trend per ward every month.
- Report to the board every six months: where we stood, what we changed, where we are now.
- Repeat.
If you also want to tell the board what it means in euros and CO₂, make the calculation easy to follow. There is an example in What does food waste cost a care organisation? A worked example. More on the standards and where waste arises is in Food waste in healthcare: what it costs and how to measure it.
How Waste Warrior Monitor helps with the next step
Waste Warrior Monitor is built for the step from measuring to doing. The dashboard shows waste as a percentage of purchases, with the change in percentage points since the previous period. You filter by period, from the last 7 days to this year, and by ward.
For each meal you see what comes back most, and whether it was not eaten or not served. An overview per ward, an ingredient overview and a heatmap of ingredient by meal show where to look. The weekly trend over 26 weeks shows whether a measure works, and how many percentage points you are from Silver or Gold. That level is an indicator, not a certification. In the photo gallery you search by ingredient, so you can see the plates themselves. "Wat ontbreekt" (what's missing) shows whether your figures are complete.
With bulk purchase import (CSV import) you add purchases in one go, for example from your supplier's export. With automatic report generation (PDF report) you record the figures for the board or the auditor.
Curious how that works for your locations? Take a look at Waste Warrior Monitor or book a demo.
