Around three to five minutes, depending on your data. Your answers are processed locally in your browser.
Legal position reviewed: 19 October 2026. Based on: Directive (EU) 2025/1892 (opens a new tab). No legal certification and no mandatory individual quota for every canteen.
YOUR CANTEEN CHECK
What do you already know?
“I don’t know” is useful too: it shows which data you need for the next step.
The questionnaire is loading. Explanations and sources are available below.
Please check your answers.
YOUR ORIENTATION
A clear view of the next step.
NO LEGAL CERTIFICATION
A / REGULATORY CONTEXT
What does this mean for your operation?
The European targets do not impose a blanket requirement for every canteen to cut waste by thirty per cent. This check cannot conclusively determine which individual requirements apply.
The ministry page reviewed, updated 30 September 2026, lists the amendment to the Circular Economy Act as a ministerial draft within an ongoing proposal. A draft is not an adopted law. No general new digital measurement or reporting obligation for every canteen is inferred here from the European targets alone.
Food Be Good’s own assessment method. Not an official score or a statement about your operation’s legal compliance.
C / HYPOTHETICAL QUANTITY & COST SCENARIOS
What if there were less waste?
CALCULATION ASSUMPTIONS, NOT GUARANTEED SAVINGS
Annual quantity, extrapolated
Cannot be calculated
Waste per meal served
Cannot be calculated
Entered avoidable costs
Not provided
Your chosen scenario
Hypothetically avoided quantity per year
Theoretical cost potential per year
Theoretical potential is not an achieved saving. Fixed costs, additional implementation work, variable demand and avoidable versus unavoidable components need separate assessment. All values refer to the same selected operating scope.
Results are not automatically sent to Food Be Good. Contacting us is optional and does not automatically include your calculation inputs.
UNDERSTAND THE REQUIREMENTS
What do the EU targets mean for canteens?
Germany must take measures to achieve the combined targets. They do not impose an identical quota on every kitchen.
Adopted European requirement
Combined targets by 2030
Directive (EU) 2025/1892 has been in force since 16 October 2025. Countries must reduce food waste in processing and manufacturing by ten per cent by 2030. Retail, other food distribution, hospitality, food services and households share a combined target of thirty per cent per person. This is not an identical reduction quota for every canteen.
The comparison is generally against the annual average for 2021–2023. Earlier reference years may be used under the conditions set out in law. Germany must implement the necessary provisions by 17 June 2027. This is not a blanket deadline to purchase software.
The ministry page reviewed, updated 30 September 2026, lists the amendment to the Circular Economy Act as a ministerial draft within an ongoing proposal. A draft is not an adopted law. No general new digital measurement or reporting obligation for every canteen is inferred here from the European targets alone.
Food businesses already face requirements on food safety, hygiene and traceability. Within its scope, Germany’s Commercial Waste Ordinance includes separate collection and documentation requirements, with exceptions. This check does not assess their specific fulfilment. No new blanket measurement duty does not mean no documentation duties exist.
A defined measurement scope, separate waste categories, appropriate reference figures and regular follow-up support operational improvement. The data maturity index and ten, twenty and thirty per cent scenarios used here are Food Be Good’s own guidance, not official assessments or mandatory individual quotas.
General guidance based on your inputs, not individual legal advice or a full assessment of all applicable rules. German context has been reviewed; national law in other countries is not assessed. Food redistribution remains subject to applicable requirements and approval by the responsible business.
TRANSPARENT METHODOLOGY
Clear calculations. Thoughtful interpretation.
What is this check?
A free tool for workplace and university canteens and other catering operations. It combines general regulatory context with our own data maturity index and scenario calculations.
Which data do you need?
For context, information about your activity and location is enough. Quantity scenarios require weighed waste and operating days. Waste intensity also needs meals actually served. Euro figures require your own avoidable costs per kilogram.
Which operations is the check suitable for?
Workplace and university canteens, school, hospital and care catering, public canteens and caterers. Choose one site or a clearly defined combined scope. This first version does not assess national law outside Germany.
How the scenarios are calculated
Annual quantity
Kilograms per operating day × operating days per year.
Convert a weekly figure
Weekly quantity ÷ operating days in that week. Annual extrapolation then uses the daily figure.
Waste intensity
Kilograms per operating day ÷ meals served per operating day.
Hypothetically avoided quantity
Annual extrapolation × selected assumption of ten, twenty or thirty per cent.
Theoretical cost potential
Hypothetically avoided quantity × entered avoidable cost per kilogram.
All reference figures must match. Samples do not become supposedly measured annual quantities. Cost components not entered are explicitly shown as excluded.
Our index weighting in detail
Maximum 100 points: measurement systems and data quality 35, distinguishing causes 20, production planning and prevention 20, responsibilities and actions 15, regular analysis 10.
Yes / partly / no use the listed point levels. Measurement frequency runs from daily through weekly, monthly and rarely to never; analysis from regular through occasional to not yet. Unknown answers provide no confirmed points. Data coverage shows the weighted share of criteria answered. If there is no measurement routine, the dependent measurement frequency counts as “never”. Redistribution itself is not scored.
Criterion
Maximum
Point levels in descending order
Measurement routine
8
8 / 4 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Measurement frequency
8
8 / 6 / 3 / 1 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Traceable weights
7
7 / 3 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Documented baseline
7
7 / 3 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Historical measurement data
5
5 / 2 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Separate waste categories
12
12 / 6 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Documented causes
8
8 / 4 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Demand forecasting
6
6 / 3 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Systematic quantity planning
6
6 / 3 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Historical dish sales
5
5 / 2 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Portion optimisation
3
3 / 1 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Named responsibility
8
8 / 4 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Documented concrete measures
7
7 / 3 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Analysis and follow-up measurement
10
10 / 5 / 0; unknown: no confirmed points
Below forty confirmed points, the guidance is “Build your measurement baseline”; below seventy, “Sharpen your routines”; otherwise, “Deepen your analysis”. With more than thirty open points, the assessment is primarily labelled provisional. These thresholds are our own guidance, not scientifically validated certification.
FROM RESULTS TO KITCHEN DECISIONS
Why measure, and what can change?
Separating production surplus, unserved food and plate waste reveals different opportunities. Alongside production volumes and dish sales, you can test starting quantities, replenishment or portions in a targeted way.
Food Be Good organises access and collection for suitable surplus after regular service. Your kitchen decides approval, quantities and availability. Confirmed collections and additional measurement data must remain clearly distinguished.
We’ll discuss which recording and analysis are currently available for your site. Automatic waste measurement or production forecasts are not universally promised here.
Must every canteen cut waste by thirty per cent by 2030?
No. The European target covers retail, food services and households combined within each country, assessed per person. It is not an automatic individual quota for every canteen.
Can I use it without an email address?
Yes. You receive the basic results without signing up. Calculations run in your browser; contacting us is optional.
What if I don’t know how much waste we generate?
Leave the weight unknown. Regulatory context and the data maturity index remain available. Quantity scenarios and related euro amounts will not be calculated.
Are the savings scenarios legal requirements?
No. Ten, twenty and thirty per cent are freely selected assumptions. They show theoretical quantity and cost potential, not a required operating figure or guaranteed success.
How are weekly quantities converted to annual figures?
The weekly quantity is divided by the operating days in that week. That daily figure is multiplied by your annual operating days. The extrapolation is useful guidance only if operating conditions are comparable.
Can I consider several sites together?
Yes, if all weights, meals and costs describe the same combined scope. Enter the total. The calculator does not multiply these figures by the number of sites again.
Is the data maturity index a legal assessment?
No. It is Food Be Good’s own operational guidance score. Subscores, unknown answers and weighting are visible. It confirms neither legal compliance nor fulfilment of specific obligations.
Is my operating data stored or sent anywhere?
Your answers are processed in your browser’s memory for this check. Inputs are not automatically transmitted, permanently stored or automatically sent as results. When printing or saving a PDF, you decide what happens to the resulting file.
SOURCES & RESPONSIBILITY
Read the sources. See for yourself.
Food Be Good is responsible for this tool. Legal position reviewed on 19 October 2026. Calculation assumptions and our index are explicitly not official assessments.
General guidance based on your inputs, not individual legal advice or a full assessment of all applicable rules. German context has been reviewed; national law in other countries is not assessed. Food redistribution remains subject to applicable requirements and approval by the responsible business.
DISCUSS THE RIGHT NEXT STEPS
Your canteen. Your starting point.
Want to explore measurement, planning or a responsible pickup process for your site? Tell us about your operation.
