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How Smart Waste Reduction Can Boost Your Bottom Line
Written by PMQ
Published: November 11, 2025
Food Waste Can Drain a Small Pizzeria of Valuable Revenue
Independent pizzerias are continually up against larger chains for a piece of the pie. One piece of that puzzle is minimizing costs like food waste. According to GoodSource Solutions’s 2024 report, 60% of operators are looking to minimize waste through products that reduce food loss, and all operators are looking for best practices. The good news is that Hillshire Farm® brand fully cooked pizza toppings are here to assist.
60% of operators are looking to minimize waste through products that reduce food loss.
GoodSource Solutions
When it comes to food waste, the statistics are daunting, with major implications not just for U.S. operators, but for the world at large. According to 2024 research by Alto-Shaam, restaurant operators estimate discarding between 100–500 pounds of food each week on average. The top causes of waste include fresh food with a short shelf life (49%) and inaccurate portioning (38%).
The counterargument is that according to the ReFeed Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide, restaurants can save approximately $8 per every dollar invested in food-waste reduction. Furthermore, diners care about food waste, and in some cases, may be willing to pay more at restaurants with present food waste programs.
“As a foodservice operator, when you think about waste, you think about food. What am I throwing away in pieces?” says Tyson Foodservice Corporate Chef Brooks Cameron. “But when you go to buying a pre-prepped product versus making these things, you reduce your waste by not having the whole production. For instance, I don’t know how many pairs of gloves are going to go into the handling and making of that sausage. How many times am I going to use parchment paper? How many things are going to get washed? What am I storing it in? That’s like plastic bags or deli containers, sometimes recyclables, sometimes not.”
Using Hillshire Farm® brand fully cooked toppings minimizes prep time and thus helps reduce yield loss. The consistent product size begets portion control to help reduce the overuse of ingredients and manage food costs. Further, leveraging frozen products that have a longer shelf life and can be stored efficiently means minimization of waste from raw ingredient spoilage.
“It’s really going to come down to portion control,” Cameron says. “Most independent operators are buying a prepared pepperoni. You’ll find a few operators here and there that are hand-making items, but they’re few and far between. For the most part, independent operators are buying toppings that are pre-made. If it’s something raw, most of the time it’s cooked before service anyway. So with the Hillshire Farm products, they’re replicating something somebody would make in-house, but this way offers labor savings.”
Implementing a robust inventory tracking system to monitor ingredient usage and identify areas of waste is fundamental to affecting the bottom line. Hillshire Farm® brand packaging will specify, for instance, slice thickness, how many units per package and preparation. “It just makes it easier on the operator to know exactly how much they’re putting on [the pizza],” Cameron says. “It’s nice when you have a product that’s got a count or any kind of serving size that goes with it. So, I know I’m going to use 8 ounces of sausage crumble every time.” This does away with human error that creates food waste, where one worker adds a handful and another worker adds two handfuls.
“It’s nice when you have a product that’s got a count or any kind of serving size that goes with it.”
Tyson Foodservice Corporate Chef Brooks Cameron
A benefit of incorporating Hillshire Farm® brand cooked toppings is how meat ingredients can be repurposed across multiple non-pizza dishes. “The concept of repurposing ingredients has been around forever; that's just a foodservice operator trying to be efficient and keep costs down. The nice thing about pizza menus is that a lot of your ingredients can be used in other areas of the menu,” Cameron says.
For more information on how Hillshire Farm® brand can help your pizzeria compete, visit our brand page.
