Viking Line’s ‘Mariella’ has succeeded in reducing the amount of food waste by an estimated 27 tonnes over a period of four months, equal to around 70,000 meals.
In April, 2019, the company joined forces with Winnow to undertake a project intended to reduce the food waste on ‘Mariella’.
The majority of the meals served on the ropax are prepared centrally in the same kitchen. For the duration of the project, the kitchen waste bins were equipped with scales to measure the actual amount of waste. With the help of computer software, the waste is categorised, weighed and recorded for statistical purposes. The computer-generated reports enable the monitoring of plate waste, trim waste and waste, due to over production. In practice, for example, all the discarded food from the buffet lines is measured.
“We have managed to minimise food waste per passenger by an average of 40%. This reduction was especially driven by an increase of efficiency in our kitchen procedures. We pay more attention to preparation amounts. As a concrete example, any potatoes boiled for lunches can also be used to prepare delicious side dishes for the dinner crowd,” explained Janne Lindholm, Viking Line’s Restaurant Manager.
Viking Line restaurants are also developing, among other things, the presentation and serving size of their dishes as a means of reducing the plate waste. The buffet restaurant, for example, offers ready-made portions that enable passengers to select the exact amount that they want.
“None of the changes required us to compromise on the quality, freshness or availability of our food. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite. When we utilise raw ingredients more efficiently, we avoid over production and there is more time left to focus on development work and customer service,” Lindholm added.
The remaining food waste is used for biogas production. In 2018, the biowaste collected from ‘Viking XPRS’, ‘Viking Grace’ and ‘Mariella’ was used to produce a total of 98,550 cu m of biogas, which equals, in terms of energy, 111,300 litres of gasoline.
‘Mariella’s waste reduction project will continue. Based on the positive results, a similar project is planned for ‘Gabriella’.
