Stop Food Waste Day was on the 30th April 2025, and train operator LNER are highlighting how they consider food waste when designing their onboard dishes.

The onboard LNER menu includes food items from cooked breakfasts to snacks.

A staggering 23 million people travel on LNER’s 50,000 services yearly, making menu creation a difficult task.

They have a special team committed to creating a menu covering hot and cold food which stays delicious.

A Portal system has been created by the team which monitors live order information, which they combine with historical orders, to help predict how much food is needed.

This ensures that they do not have a large surplus of each item and helps them keep up to date with items that should be replaced.

LNER’s menu development team prides itself on the products they have carefully selected locally along their routes. They regularly test menu items to ensure that each item travels well and remains tasting great.

For any sudden alterations that result in surplus food items, they work with Gate Gourmet, which works to redistribute the food to different organisations and charities so nothing goes to waste.

Additionally, they have worked with FareShare to help reduce waste.

“Like any household will know, deciding on a weekly menu is challenging enough. But put the dining room on a train and factor in numerous guests eating at different times of day, seasonality, journey length and unscheduled events that change customer numbers, and things can get complicated.”

“We work incredibly hard to provide a wide range of food available for our customers and thanks to the
expertise of the team, we’re reducing waste year on year. Currently only 1.5 per cent of the millions of
items consumed onboard each year are returned as waste, and even then, we work hard to find a use
for them.”

Mark Stevenson, Customer Experience Proposition Manager for LNER