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International Day of Awareness of Food Loss & Waste

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International Day of Awareness of Food Loss & Waste is today. It’s a useful nudge: nearly one-fifth of food available to consumers is wasted across households, retail and food service, even as food insecurity rises. Food Safety

At MYA, we see waste reduction as a design, operations and culture question, not just a back-of-house tidy-up:

  • Design & kit: right-sized cooking equipment, blast chill, smart holding, accurate scales, AI-assisted waste tracking, and cold-chain discipline all cut variance and lift yield
  • Training: brief your team on portioning, prep planning and labelling; coach daily line checks; celebrate wins.
  • Waste audits: measure pre-service, plate and process waste weekly; publish results and act.
  • Menu engineering: design “recycle loops” that upcycle trims and surplus into specials; simplify low-movers to prevent over-production.
  • Client behaviours: align forecasted numbers with actuals; reduce unnecessary choice at low volume; agree service levels that don’t force waste.
  • Supply side: negotiate MOQ flex, phased deliveries and spec tolerance with suppliers.
  • Commit, publicly: targets focus minds.

Leaders are showing the way. Compass Group is aligned to halving food waste by 2030 and founded Stop Food Waste Day: “Every action, no matter how small, adds up to a massive collective impact.” Meanwhile Sodexo UK and Ireland set an ambitious target to halve food waste by 2025, five years ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Goal, and has today announced that it has met that target.

If you’re serious about waste, start with three moves: run a two-week waste audit, re-engineer your menu for reuse, and recalibrate equipment and portioning. Then lock the habits in.

Want a rapid site-specific plan? We’ll design the pathway, choose the kit, train the team, and prove the numbers. Contact us

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  • We recently worked with the team at MYA on a bid for a tender for multiple catering sites. Their proactive, innovative and dynamic approach to the task was a breath of fresh air, and we were able to work systematically through a complex set of designs with an abundance of creativity and design options to consider. Throughout the whole process, the team at MYA were fully engaged and, above all, great fun to work with. I will definitely be working with the team again on future projects and would highly recommend them as design consultants.

    Steven Braithwaite, Managing Director, Somerset Larder

  • We recently had the pleasure of collaborating with MYA on the City of London School for Girls project at the Barbican, London. One of the standout aspects of MYA’s involvement was their swift, detailed, and highly effective coordination of design elements. MYA’s proactive approach, attention to detail, and dedication to achieving design harmony made them an invaluable partner in this project. Their ability to strategically align diverse design aspects contributed significantly to the success of the collaboration, reinforcing the importance of well-integrated teamwork in delivering high-quality solutions.

    Simon Spiteri, Director/Architect, Cowan Architects

  • The team, led by Carla McKenzie, were meticulous in every detail. They modelled the cleaning requirements to deliver the optimum solution for the facilities across EMEA, and really took time to understand the culture of our business. I have no hesitation in recommending MYA and its team – they are dedicated and innovative, and always go the extra mile.

    Natalia Ros Vargas, Office Team Leader, Booking.com

  • Carla and her team have broad experience in the industry. Apart from being very supportive in inventing (new) concepts, they also make use of their many years of experience when implementing these concepts. Their ultimate goal is to let people enjoy honest and good food.

    Marcel Bisselink, Owner, Daily Fresh Food, Galeen, Netherlands

  • Carla and her team worked tirelessly with us to ensure our very international and cross-cultural needs were met with great creativity and skill. They listened to us, responded to our needs and delivered above expectations.

    Angela Hencher, Director of Business Administration, Dulwich College, Shanghai Pudong

  • They are brave enough to challenge others in pursuit of the ultimate solution, whether it be behind the scenes with kitchen flow and catering management, or front-of-house service and design.

    Richard Russell, Catering Equipment Distributor Director, Western Blueprint

  • If all companies who serve the independent school sector had your breadth of vision and openness of mind, I have little doubt that the sector would be a richer and more exciting place to be.

    Phillip Godfrey, Bursar, Halliford School

  • During the negotiation process, Carla’s knowledge and expertise enabled our company to achieve a very strong commercial outcome, and some significant savings were yielded from the exercise.

    Penny Arnold, Commercial & Operations Director, Fusion Lifestyle