Good question! This was Scotland’s first ever hospitality-led food waste campaign, so we were learning as went along.

Plate up for Glasgow was a campaign designed to inspire and invite everyone to act against food waste. The ambition was to work alongside our most loved cafes, restaurant and bars to challenge traditional and often wasteful dining out or take away business models with the aim of sending as little food waste as possible to landfill.   

Each of our participating venues  committed to offering at least one low-waste food or drink option on their menu throughout the campaign period. 

To ensure consistency throughout the campaign, all venues were set the challenge of coming up with a dish or drink based on at least one of the following 4 parameters: 

1. Rethinking existing menu items   (eg using the parts of ingredients that wouldn’t always make it to the plate, such as veg stalks leaves and meat offcuts)   
     
2. Showcasing food preservation techniques   
   (eg drying, pickling, smoking, fermenting, to save produce that may be nearing end of life and prematurely wasted)     
   
   
3. Using unfashionable cuts of meat   
   (eg the nose-to-tail approach to butchery)
       
   
4. Creating a dish from surplus or donated food   
   (eg creating dishes from 'surprise' ingredients that have been donated by suppliers who simply have too much stock that won’t be distributed in time)     

All venues taking part in the campaign had to submit their proposed low waste dish through an application process. All applications were reviewed by our team, including an external chef, to ensure their offerings were strong enough to meet our entry criteria.  

Throughout the campaign period (12 October – 12 November), each of our participating venues were visited regularly by our team (we think of it as a perk of the job!) to ensure that they were keeping up with the campaign’s messaging and standards. 

Yes! Dining options were never created with ingredients that had past their sell-by date. ‘Leftover’ food was just food that is surplus or unsold, which unfortunately happens all too often along food supply chains. Other dishes were created from ‘wasted’ food that had been generated as a by-product from other kitchen or bar recipes, or something that would have normally been binned because there was no use of it… before Plate up for Glasgow came along!

All venues are encouraged to offer longer term low-waste dining options even though the campaign has come to an end.  

Part of our objective is to work with businesses to inspire change in long term thinking, helping them to discover and implement practical solutions to tackling food waste they can adopt on an ongoing basis. Participating venues have committed to help improve the food and drink sector’s green credentials, whilst also realising the financial benefits of doing so. 

Yes! We’ve put together our Ultimate Food Waste Guide, which is packed with easy tips and hacks on how to reduce food waste in your home.  We’re also keen to hear from you!  If you’d like to share your ideas around reducing food waste, or if there are any specific areas around the topic that you’d like to see tackled next, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at hello@plateupforglasgow.co.uk.

Plate up for Glasgow was a pilot campaign and was designed to be the very beginning of a much longer-term sustainability journey. We will continue to work with and support participating venues to home in on other food-related issues in the next phase of activity. This could include single use packaging, plant-based foods, food poverty, social and community benefits, nutrition and much more.

Plate up for Glasgow's key focus was addressing the issue of food waste, providing support to both businesses and individuals looking to take steps to reduce their own food waste in the workplace or at home. This will go some way to tackling food poverty, however, the campaign primarily focused on the global impact of food waste and how we can improve systems and practices to reduce climate change.   

That said, Plate up for Glasgow has inspired some of our participating venues to contribute to food poverty charities. For example, Sprigg collaborated with their local supplier, turning donated surplus veg into weekly soup portions for the Homeless Project Scotland. Also, 100% of the sale price on their ‘Food Hero’ dish went to their partner charity, Godharmic.  

Drygate  also donated proceeds from their Plate up for Glasgow beer, Spare Parts, (made from donated surplus food) to the Trussell Trust.