At a major UK pharmaceutical campus, simple measurement and modest operational changes helped a Sodexo-managed kitchen cut food waste by 42%. Sodexo says WasteWatch is now deployed at 530 sites and is on track to halve waste by August 2025, though most figures are company-reported.
Foodservice operators at large corporate sites have long struggled with invisible losses: small, routine disposals that accumulate into significant cost and carbon. A recent account by Leanpath of a Sodexo-managed contract at a major UK pharmaceutical campus underlines how straightforward measurement, combined with modest operational changes and staff engagement, can cut that leakage sharply.
According to the Leanpath blog, the site serves about 3,000 employees from a central kitchen supplying a main restaurant, seven cafés, 52 smaller outlets and ten vending machines. A single Leanpath tracker placed in the main kitchen revealed an unexpected hot spot: large volumes of wasted sandwiches in the vending machines. “The vending machine would get filled three times a week, but there was really no control over it,” Venue Supervisor and the site’s Food Waste Champion Bob Thoresen told Leanpath. “It was just put sandwiches in, take the old sandwiches out and get rid of them.”
The monitoring data prompted a series of pragmatic responses. Staff education and awareness-raising – roughly 40 team members were trained to understand the financial and environmental case for prevention – sits alongside practical operational fixes: standardising ranges across vending units to enable easier stock transfers, using waste records to inform next-day ordering from the central kitchen, introducing sandwich meal deals to increase uptake, and a WhatsApp group to move surplus stock in real time between outlets. Leanpath’s write-up credits menu agility – for example, abandoning less popular fruit pots when free fruit was already supplied on site – and weekly waste targets set by staff as further drivers of change.
Sodexo’s Catering & Hospitality Manager Neil Parry told Leanpath that “the financial savings have been massive.” The vendor reports that, at this contract, those combined measures produced a 42% reduction in wasted food.
That single-site result sits within a longer, company-wide push. Sodexo announced in May 2019 that it would roll out WasteWatch, powered by Leanpath, across 3,000 sites worldwide as part of an ambition to halve food waste by 2025; then-CEO Denis Machuel framed the programme as a way to pair automated measurement with frontline training so sites could “capture waste data, identify causes and implement targeted changes,” according to Sodexo’s newsroom. Leanpath and Sodexo alike have described typical reductions in the order of half where the system is used, a figure the vendor highlights in promotional material.
Independent and third‑party reporting paints a nuanced picture of scale and impact. Business in the Community’s November 2021 case study of Sodexo’s UK and Ireland rollout reported WasteWatch operating across the UK and Ireland with over 200 UK sites achieving an average 42% reduction; the study quantified that more than 280 tonnes of food were prevented at those sites – equivalent, it said, to over 538,000 meals – and noted material carbon savings. Leanpath’s own October 2021 update similarly stated that more than 229 sites had been deployed in a year, claiming prevention of over 280 tonnes of food, roughly 500,000 meals and some 2,000 tonnes CO2e saved.
Sodexo’s own more recent figures take the claim further. In a March 2025 newsroom statement, Sodexo UK & Ireland said WasteWatch had been deployed at 530 sites and that the company was “on track to halve food waste by the end of 2025.” The release stated that, since 2015, the programme had prevented 10,381 tonnes CO2e and saved more than 2.7 million meals, and reported an average 45% reduction across sites where WasteWatch is used. Sodexo expressed confidence of reaching a 50% reduction by 31 August 2025 to meet its sustainability commitments.
Those differing numbers illustrate two important realities. First, outcomes vary by context: a single, closely managed B&I site with strong local leadership can outperform or match the average, but across hundreds of diverse contracts results will naturally scatter. Second, the headline reduction percentages often cited by vendors and companies are averages or typical outcomes rather than guaranteed results for every location. Where Leanpath and Sodexo report figures, they are generally framed as programme outcomes or estimates; Business in the Community’s case study provides an external perspective corroborating the order of magnitude of savings but on a subset of sites.
From a practical standpoint, the lessons here are straightforward and transferable. Automated measurement provides visibility that frontline teams can act on; small behavioural changes – talking about waste, setting targets, creating communication channels – mobilise staff; and modest process tweaks (standardising SKUs, dynamic redistribution, last‑day promotions) turn insight into reduced loss. The site-level story captured by Leanpath is as much about culture as technology: Thoresen’s line – “Imagine this is your own business. How would you feel if you were throwing this away on a daily basis?” – encapsulates the shift from passive disposal to active prevention.
At the same time, editorial distance is warranted. Much of the data published about WasteWatch comes from Sodexo and Leanpath, organisations with commercial and reputational incentives to highlight success; their figures should be read as company-reported outcomes unless verified by independent audits. Business in the Community’s case study offers helpful corroboration for the UK rollout, but wider, third‑party evaluations across different catering segments would strengthen claims about typical savings and carbon impacts.
For operators and clients considering similar programmes, the evidence suggests a pragmatic pathway: start with measurement, prioritise quick operational wins, train and involve teams, and publish transparent results so progress can be verified. If Sodexo meets its stated target by 31 August 2025, it will provide a high‑profile example of scaling prevention across large estates. Either way, the combination of low‑tech behaviours and simple data capture that cut waste by more than 40% at a single large site points to an approach that is both achievable and replicable.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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