Pride on Our Plates: Reducing Food Waste in China’s Catering Industry

China eats a lot. With a population of 1.4 billion, the country is one of the world’s leading agricultural producers, one of the leading consumers—and, unfortunately, one of the major wasters, with 35 million tons of food in China thrown out every year. Over half of that is attributed to dumping excess food upon consumption. The Pride on Our Plates project seeks to strengthen China’s MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) through proven food waste solutions and behavioral insights.  

MSMEs, which make up 97% of China’s enterprises, often have limited access to awareness-raising campaigns, trainings, and tools on reducing food waste. Pride on Our Plates seeks to close that gap by empowering China’s MSMEs to respond to the food waste challenge. In particular, the project is focusing on MSMEs in China’s burgeoning hospitality sector.  

According to the project, they are the first anti-food waste project targeting the catering industry at such scale in China. The catering industry is still unregulated and represents an important space for growth. Pride on Our Plates works closely with the China Hospitality Association and various local industry associations. The project says they ensure the design of suitable guidelines and policies by connecting relevant local government bodies and stakeholders.  

During the training, the team designs a game of using different leftover materials to produce recipes.  

Pride on Our Plates implements training programs and pilots in six major cities and has influenced more than 61 million consumers in the past three years. According to the project, as of 2024, 383 restaurants have participated in Pride on Our Plates trainings across China; 458 MSME staff have been trained on food waste prevention, reduction and diversion practices, and 50 pilot MSMEs in the hospitality and food services sector have reduced their food waste by 10%-50%. Pride on Our Plates has also published the first Food Waste Reduction Practical Guide for restaurants in China, which has served as a key reference on the group standard that China’s official Action Plan on Reducing Food Loss and Waste (announced at end of 2024) explicitly promotes. Innovative and diversified events have been organized, such as a Zero Waste Cooking Contest followed by summarizing a Zero Waste Cookbook. The project also launched Care for Food Coalition of Reducing Food Loss and Waste, which they say is the first Cross-Sector Initiative on Food Waste Reduction in China and now has nearly 100 members working together to fight food waste in the country.  

As the food system accounts for around 30% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), actions on food loss and waste (FLW) are important to reduce food system emissions and ensure alignment with a 1.5°C future. Reducing and better managing food waste is one of the easiest and most effective ways to mitigate the environmental impacts of our food system and sustainably feed our communities. And it has other benefits too: according to the project, food waste reduction will help restaurants reduce cost, improve staff competences, enhance lean management, and gain more customers. Keeping food on our plates and out of our bins is something everyone can be proud of.

Learn more about Pride on Our Plates.

Written by Sarah Souli
Images provided by Pride on Our Plates

Visiting pilot restaurants’ kitchens to better understand the sources of food waste and solutions.

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