CERN's catering provider, Novae, has a strong commitment to sustainability, the environment and the fight against food waste. In particular, they are signatory of the Swiss Interprofessional Agreement on the Reduction of Food Waste, which aims to halve food waste by 2030.

To meet these commitments, Novae has extended food waste weighing campaigns to all its restaurants from 2023. At CERN, their teams spent several weeks weighing leftovers from tray returns, from buffets, food heated but not sold, as well as preparation waste from the various catering outlets.

The results show that the average food waste is less than 2.5 tablespoons per plate: for R1 and its snacks 39 g or 2.5 tablespoons, for R2 and its snacks 20 g or 1.5 tablespoons and for R3 28 g or 2 tablespoons.

The data collected will be used as a benchmark. They will allow further improvements of our practices and develop efficient measures for combating food waste even better in each restaurant.