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Saving & sharing food

Checklist for restaurants and canteens: donate surplus food instead of throwing it away

At the end of service there is often good food left in the kitchen. This checklist shows how your restaurant, canteen or catering business in Bern can produce less surplus and pass on the rest safely.

By Richard Červenka · 5 min read · updated 1 November 2026

Stacked stainless steel gastronorm containers in a restaurant kitchen.
Photo: Diego F. Parra, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Before you start

This article is information, not legal advice. In the Canton of Bern the binding authority is the Kantonales Laboratorium, the cantonal food inspection. Temperatures and the law: see Passing on food safely.

1. First: less surplus

Donating is good; not cooking too much is better. According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN/BAFU), food consumption in Switzerland leads to the loss of around 2.8 million tonnes of food a year. About 7 per cent of losses happen in restaurants and catering, says foodwaste.ch. In 2017 the average was 127 grams per main meal. Eleven companies measuring for 2024 averaged around 66 grams (2025 monitoring report by ZHAW for the FOEN). Part of the gap may be down to method.

The gastronomy guide written by United Against Waste for the FOEN (January 2026) names prevention as the top priority. From it:

  • Measure your losses for at least four weeks in a row.
  • Weigh separately: kitchen and storage (overproduction, buffet leftovers), guests (plate waste, bread from the table) and peelings.
  • Calculate in grams per main meal (450 grams). For restaurants and hotels, the guide calls under 45 grams good practice.
  • Plan purchasing more precisely; check which dishes rarely sell.
  • Offer smaller portions and second helpings; serve bread only on request.
  • Skip the buffet where possible, otherwise use smaller plates. Offer take-home boxes.
  • Pass surplus to staff or sell it through other channels, for example Too Good To Go.

United Against Waste from Basel helps with its Food Save Management programme: your team weighs, the specialists analyse. It reports 35 per cent less waste on average.

2. What you can donate and what not

Even giving food away counts as placing it on the market. The Lebensmittelgesetz (LMG, Swiss Food Act), Art. 6 includes every transfer free of charge. Under Art. 7 LMG only safe food may be placed on the market. A guide by ZHAW for the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO/BLV) states: with sensitive dishes you cannot rely on your senses alone. When in doubt, safety comes first.

  • Yes: dishes straight from the kitchen that were never in the guest area.
  • No: plate waste, bread from the table and anything that stood open in the guest area, such as a buffet.
  • Cooked food only with an unbroken cold or hot chain. The Hygieneverordnung (HyV, Hygiene Ordinance), Art. 24 says the cold chain must not be broken. The übrig check asks: hot above 65 °C, or cooled to 5 °C or colder within two hours?
  • No: anything past its use-by date (“zu verbrauchen bis”). According to the FSVO it may no longer be passed on.
  • Yes, after checking: packaged goods past the best-before date, if they are safe and nobody is misled (FSVO). More in “Best before” or “use by”.
  • Public fridges are not a place for cooked food: at Madame Frigo (public sharing fridges) cooked or opened products, meat and fish are banned; fruit, vegetables and bread are fine.

3. Before your first donation

  • Find a place that accepts cooked food; not all do. Schweizer Tafel (a Swiss food bank) takes no cooked meals, no opened packs and no very small quantities. Tischlein deck dich (a food aid organisation) rejects fresh, open, unpackaged deli items and packaged goods lacking ingredient and allergen details.
  • With übrig, cooked food is meant only for night shelters (Notschlafstellen) and social institutions. The start list on übrig names, for example, the Salvation Army's Passantenheim, Sleeper, the youth night shelter Pluto, Punkt 6 and the Kirchliche Gassenarbeit Bern.
  • Call before the first hand-over: what and how much is needed? Who collects when, with which box? Can they reheat? Until when is it served?
  • Check your Selbstkontrolle (self-monitoring). Under Art. 26 LMG you must ensure the legal requirements are met. The checklist of the Kantonales Laboratorium Bern requires all measures to be documented in writing, including rules for transport and temperatures. Add donating as its own work instruction.
  • Clarify responsibility: until hand-over it lies with your business; the FSVO says self-monitoring applies until then. According to the ZHAW guide, a donor cannot sign away liability in an agreement.
  • If you are unsure, ask the Kantonales Laboratorium.

4. At hand-over

  • Measure and note the temperature: hot or chilled.
  • Clean, closed container, carried in a cool box or hot box.
  • Label with dish, time of preparation, use-by (“Zu verbrauchen bis”), allergens, business and phone.
  • Allergens: the food information ordinance (LIV), Annex 6 lists 14 groups, such as cereals containing gluten, milk, eggs, nuts and celery. The Allergen poster helps.
  • The label carries the note “Vor dem Servieren durcherhitzen” (heat through before serving).
  • Log: what, how much, when, to whom. If food does not go directly to consumers, you must be able to tell the authority who received it (LGV, Art. 83).

The free tool übrig guides you through these steps: seven hygiene questions, a report, a label for print, WhatsApp or Signal, and a log kept only in your browser. No account, no server. The pilot has not started yet. For events there is the club party kitchen checklist.

5. Afterwards

  • Ask: did everything arrive well? Were quantity and timing right? Note changes.
  • Keep the log: under the LGV, at least until the food can be assumed eaten.
  • Measure again: is the surplus shrinking?

More options are in Saving food in Bern, more figures in Food waste in Switzerland.

Sources

Also worth reading

Passing on food safelyArticleSaving food in BernArticle“Best before” or “use by”Articleübrig: check, label, logToolAllergen posterTool

Text: Richard Červenka, Bärn Kit. Found a mistake? Write to hallo@uebrig.ch.