Artificial intelligence promises to help restaurant kitchens, buffets and catering companies to control and reduce the amount of food that is being wasted.
There’s a new tool to help restaurants, buffets and catering companies reduce food waste: high-tech bins with artificial intelligence (AI). Equipped with smart cameras, scales and sometimes touch screens, these bins help keep track of the items being thrown away, including the type of food and whether it has been cooked or cut.
In 2022, 1.05 billion tons of food were wasted, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and almost a third of this waste came from the restaurant sector. This technology allows the industry to control its budgets and environmental impacts, preventing billions of dollars of food from being wasted, while at the same time reducing a significant source of greenhouse gases.
Leanpath is one of the companies offering waste bins with waste tracking. The technology uses scales and touch screens that allow chefs to select the type of food, the reason for disposal, the time of day, among other details. Some models also use smart cameras that help employees visualize the accumulation of wasted food. The product is used in more than 4,000 kitchens, including Google offices, Marriott hotels and university cafeterias.
The company estimates that it will have saved 15 million meals from going to waste and avoided 55,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2023. However, Andrew Shakman, CEO of Leanpath, explains that in the past, food waste was considered a normal part of the business. “It was the elephant in the kitchen. People thought they had to waste food and that’s how it worked, and nobody was particularly concerned about it. And it was costing them a lot of money,” he tells Bloomberg.
In the case of the Dutch company Orbisk, waste calculators are already being tested on two Carnival Corp. cruise ships, after they found that low-tech solutions – such as offering smaller buffet plates – were only reducing part of the waste.
The Orbisk calculator has cameras and scales that detect the types of food going into the bin, revealing previously hidden opportunities for waste reduction. For example, in the first two months of using Orbisk, Carnival discovered that its Bonsai Sushi restaurants were throwing away a considerable amount of cucumber and that its burger bars were wasting a significant number of fries, which led the company to reconsider the size of the serving spoons.
For Hamish Forbes, senior analyst at the non-governmental organization Waste and Resources Action Programme, chefs can be great advocates of this technology. “Chefs don’t want to throw food away, they want to feel empowered to make sure that what they cook makes it to the plate. AI is a great way to reduce the burden of that first step,” he explains to Bloomberg.
Despite the good results, there are limitations to what all AI-based technologies can do:
Padaria Portuguesa’s Christmas campaign is run in partnership with Refood, with the aim of attracting new volunteers to get more people involved in the fight
Whether it’s a small party or a big event. At a wedding or company team building activity. Food brings people together at the table and
This article promotes an action that encourages the reduction of waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse.
➡️ To discover more businesses that are aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12 “Sustainable Production and Consumption” click here.
➡️ For news, tips and interviews about this topic, click here.
➡️ Want to know more about the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? Click here
Esta publicação também está disponível em:
Português (Portuguese (Portugal))
Para estar a par de tudo o que acontece na área da sustentabilidade, consumo responsável e impacto social.
