Safe & Sustainable Foodware: Engaging Staff and Customers in the Transition

Safe and Sustainable Foodware: Engaging Staff and Customers in the Transition explores how to train staff, adjust workflows, and communicate with diners to ensure smooth adoption of safer foodware.

Él Recipientes para alimentos seguros y sostenibles webinar series equips restaurants, institutional food service providers, business associations, and community partners with the knowledge, tools, and resources to adopt reusable or certified-compostable food service products.  

La serie está financiada por las Subvenciones para la Prevención de la Contaminación del año fiscal 23-24 de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos (EPA): Justicia Ambiental a través de Productos más Seguros y Sostenibles, a través del Instituto de Ciencias y Políticas Ambientales (IESP) de la Universidad de Illinois en Chicago. Es posible que los trabajos de los beneficiarios de las subvenciones no hayan sido revisados formalmente por la EPA y no reflejen sus opiniones y políticas. La EPA no avala las marcas comerciales ni recomienda el uso de los productos comerciales mencionados en estos documentos.

Objetivos de aprendizaje:

• Understand real-world cases of PFAS identification in foodware and how to replace products.
• Identify effective strategies for safe foodware implementation and proactive staff training during transitions.
• Explore ways to effectively communicate with customers about sustainable changes.

Altavoces:

• Cassie Carroll, subdirectora del Centro de Resiliencia EnergySense
• Jennifer Santi, Marketing and Communications Manager, Zingerman’s Delicatessen

Key Themes

Food businesses encounter unique hurdles when transitioning to safer, more sustainable foodware: thin profit margins, high staff turnover, and limited time for training. Yet those same businesses, when equipped with effective messaging and organizational systems, can become bastions of sustainability in their communities. This session highlighted how organizations have navigated these challenges through intentional staff training, customer communication, and product testing. 

Communicating the Case for PFAS-Free Foodware with Language that Works

Cassie Carroll of the EnergySense Resilience Center shared findings from a project that worked with 31 food businesses in the Chicagoland area to identify PFAS-containing products and transition to safer alternatives. Carroll emphasized that before any switch can occur, businesses must understand and clearly communicate the health stakes. 

• Lead with health: Explain that PFAS chemicals can leach into food and beverages and that switching to safer foodware is one way to reduce everyday exposure.
• Acknowledge complexity: Rather than claiming 100% PFAS-free status, the language used encourages limiting exposure where possible.
• Provide solutions alongside the problem: Give staff and customers concrete actions, from where to compost to how to identify certified products.
• Train staff to handle customer questions: Counter staff and managers should understand why the switch was made and how to explain changes in containers, including guidance on safe reheating.

Building Organizational Systems for Lasting Change

Jennifer Santi, Marketing and Communications Manager at Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, shared how a strong internal culture and established systems make sustainability transitions more durable. To do this, Zingerman’s implemented two key frameworks to address any significant change: Bottom Line Change, and Training Passports. Zingerman’s also hold regular all-staff meetings where updates on ongoing projects are shared transparently across departments. This practice of open-book management keeps all staff informed and engaged. 

Both speakers addressed a nuanced challenge that many food businesses face: how to talk about safe foodware in communities where infrastructure is limited. Even in  the face of these difficulties, the speakers described that the availability of infrastructure should inform product selection and businesses should be transparent with staff and customers about why.