Carnival Corporation announced that it achieved a 44 percent reduction in unit food waste in 2024 compared to 2019 levels, surpassing its 2025 target of a 40 percent reduction a year ahead of schedule.

The reductions are a result of the company’s “Less Left Over” food management strategy.

Since 2019, the company has avoided over $250 million in food costs by fine-tuning its provisioning, preparation and meal service practices, Carnival said in a press release.

“Our Less Left Over strategy is powered by dozens of large and small programs and technologies across our cruise lines to cut food waste by 50 percent by 2030,” said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation.

The company added that its success stems from its holistic approach to addressing every step of the food lifecycle, both onboard its ships and in its land-based operations, from sourcing to preparation to dining services.

This includes:

• Using analytics, intelligent systems and data-driven insights for ingredient purchasing, menu planning and precision
• Leveraging AI-powered systems to align food prep with service flows and dining patterns
• Emphasizing food and meal-plating techniques
• Training crew and empowering them accordingly
• Serving ‘just right’ portions, and
• Pioneering solutions like donating surplus ingredients and meals.

Carnival said that it is maximizing the usable life of food products by repurposing food scraps into new products, such as upcycling used coffee grounds to produce vegan soap and converting used cooking oil into biofuel for its land-based tour bus operations in Alaska.

When leftovers cannot be repurposed into other resources, it ensures there is ‘less left over’ by investing in waste management technologies and systems.

The company treats and manages leftover food onboard with its over 630 biodigesters installed fleetwide. These use natural bacteria to break down and liquefy uneaten food organically.

Carnival Corporation also relies on over 90 dehydrators and dryers, which are installed to remove excess water from hard-to-break-down food items, thereby reducing the volume of remaining hard waste. The material can then be ground down for use as organic mulch and compost or offloaded.