Food waste and hygiene

Schools, colleges and universities with canteens or kitchens will inevitably generate food waste in larger quantities than those establishments not preparing and cooking food on-site.

When designing your food waste collections in your educational setting, you may want to consider collecting food waste from the kitchen separately to waste collected in “front end” or public areas. This may enable you to manage the amount of incorrect material in the bins more easily and reduce the risk of contaminating whole external food bins.

There are guidelines on food waste to help you dispose of waste properly to meet the existing waste Duty of Care law.

The Food Standards Agency also provides guide which means that you need to:

• store food waste in sealable containers which are:

• solid, and strong enough to hold food waste;

• in sound condition – i.e., without breakages or splits that could enable pests to access waste or cause leaks and

• easy to clean and disinfect;

• remove food waste and other rubbish from areas as soon as possible and

• have enough waste storage facilities to store and dispose of food waste and other rubbish to keep them clean.

Ensure any changes you make are incorporated into your Food Safety Management Systems.

If your food waste collector allows you to use compostable liners, ensure that your liners are BS EN 13432 compliant. This means that all the food waste is sent for commercial processing to meet the right standards.

You can refer to our guide for the hospitality sector which will provide more information on collecting food waste for recycling.