In a busy restaurant kitchen or central production facility, hundreds of goods are used over the course of a week. While they may all be necessary for the efficient operation of your food business, it’s simple to overlook the environmental impact of these decisions.
In order to comply with environmental sustainability criteria, catering companies now source their produce differently, plan their kitchens differently, select different cooking equipment, and even purchase eco-friendly cleaning products. A green kitchen not only benefits the future of our world, but it is also significantly more economical and billions of pounds have been saved.
Creating an eco-friendly and energy-efficient kitchen
Recover and use
Reusing items not only benefits the environment by preventing more materials from being dumped in landfills, but it also guarantees that less natural resources and less energy are consumed in your kitchen. When using wood, try to look for goods that are FSC Certified so you can be sure that it was obtained ethically, profitably, and sustainably.
Use eco-friendly materials while designing kitchens.
As a fully recyclable product that can be cut and processed like traditional timber, eco board is an example of a useful and long-lasting item. It uses agricultural byproducts, which have the advantage of having a lower carbon footprint than chipboard, MDF, OSB, and plywood.
Due to its rapid growth, bamboo is another fantastic sustainable product. Instead of using the massive amounts of water and chemicals required to make cement, the resin can also be utilised to simulate concrete flooring.
Use sustainable-harvested wooden cutting boards to prepare your food.
The carbon footprint of your kitchen can be decreased by using durable products like pots and pans made of cast iron or various grades of stainless steel.
Reduce the amount of plastic food storage in your refrigerator and freezer by using items made of silicon, glass, or metal, beeswax wraps in place of cling wrap, and looking into environmentally friendly options for food delivery services.
Build a personal compost pile.
By building your own compost bin from biodegradable kitchen leftovers that will eventually decompose into nutrient-rich soil, you can reduce food waste.
Install eco-friendly technologies
Modern kitchen appliances streamline operations and also make them more environmentally friendly. For instance, a boiling water tap may deliver hot water on demand while also saving water and electricity and is intended to address the £68 million in annual UK energy loss from boiling kettles.
lessen water
A dishwasher is also regarded as energy-efficient equipment because it uses a lot less water than conventional hand cleaning of dishes. It’s recommended to purchase a low-flow faucet head if you do occasionally need to use the kitchen sink faucet to save water.
Lighting
The ideal environmentally friendly option for the restaurant kitchen lighting is LED lighting. They also come in LED light strips for task lighting, which will use much less energy and last much longer.
Use eco-friendly cleaning supplies.
Use natural, eco-friendly cleaning items like baking soda, lemon juice, oxygen bleach, and white vinegar to stop the spread of harmful contaminants.
Integrated hobs
The energy saved by induction cooking is enormous. When using an induction range, pans containing a lot of iron are subjected to electromagnetism. Instead of heating the hob surface, this heats the pan directly. There are fewer burns since the range remains colder to the touch. Additionally, compared to a typical range, it is quicker and simpler to clean, and the burners shut off automatically when the pans are taken off.
Petroleum-based refrigerants
Another essential requirement for being ecologically friendly is the usage of hydrocarbons in commercial kitchens or cold rooms. By increasing energy efficiency, hydrocarbon refrigerants essentially eliminate the direct emissions of greenhouse gases while simultaneously lowering the indirect emissions.
An excellent option to employ in your business kitchen is an Electrolux, which can cut energy use by up to 15%. These appliances use cyclopentane to foam and include a smart defrost mode that only activates when ice is actually forming in the evaporator and shuts off as soon as the ice melts. By simply defrosting when necessary, less energy is used, and the amount of ice formation is decreased.
Systems that recover heat
By recovering heat from extracted air and transferring it into filtered fresh air that is pulled into the kitchen via a Heat Recovery Ventilator or MVHR system, ventilation with heat recovery systems strive to collect stale, damp air while minimising heat loss. This makes the air quality in your business kitchen better and effectively regulates the temperature.
Inventive Cooking
By using a few straightforward energy-saving suggestions, you can lower the carbon intensity of your cooking:
in the oven
Choosing the right-sized pot for each of the stove’s burners is crucial while cooking on a stove.
By preserving the heat in the pan and speeding up cooking, making sure that all of your pots and pans have tight-fitting lids will help you use less energy.
Cast iron or pans with copper bottoms conduct heat more efficiently than stainless steel ones.
To cook several vegetables at once, use a steamer.
the oven
While cooking, keep the oven door closed as every time it is opened, heat is lost and more energy is needed to re-heat the oven to the proper temperature.
Ovens with fans enable lower cooking temperatures.
It will conserve energy to turn off the oven 10 minutes before the cooking cycle is finished and use residual heat to continue the cooking.
Maintain the oven’s seal.
The most effective dishes for use in ovens are those made of glass or ceramic.
Modify your menu.
Your food’s place of origin can have a profound effect on the environment. Domestically cultivated ingredients frequently have a far lower carbon footprint than those that are shipped over the world. Therefore, switching to produce grown nearby is a straightforward yet very efficient approach to lower the food miles of your meal.
