Vision
AI-based food waste reduction solution for professional kitchens
Description
Vision is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based food waste management solution aimed primarily at the hospitality sector, including restaurants, hotels, cruise ships and casinos. The technology helps identify and log wasted food automatically, providing detailed insights into what types of food are being wasted and in what quantities, allowing kitchens to make informed decisions to reduce costs.
Technology
The system takes photos of food as it is discarded, and a machine learning model assesses the waste and identifies what has been thrown away in a process that becomes automatic in time. Daily and weekly summary reports are produced and delivered straight to the client’s inbox that break down the waste into categories, assign financial values and track performance over time. In larger operations, customers are able to benchmark the performances of multiple sites. Winnow, the producer of the solution, provides support for the initial installation and setup, including help configuring menus.
Target
The main users of the solution are commercial kitchens and other actors in the hospitality sector. The current users of the solution include IKEA, Hilton, etc.
Business model
Winnow offers Vision for different modalities, including Vision Control, Vision AI, Vision AI+ and VisionPW, all of which help customers track and reduce waste across their brands, sectors and geographies. Vision Control is an image-led system with in-built camera and connected scale that uses its imaging power to steer behavioural change and to identify waste reduction opportunities. Vision AI can recognize the food being discarded via AI, without changing operational processes. VisionAI+ is recommended for high-volume and complex sites, and comes with unlimited support throughout the life of the contract, as well as menu customisation and validations of the top transactions by Winnow data specialists. VisionPW is a sensor camera with connected scale that automatically records the food waste on plates (weight and imaging), connecting the kitchen to the customer’s habits and designed for complete coverage of both pre- and post-consumer waste.
Impact
According to the website, the solution has helped cut food waste by half in hundreds of kitchens, saving 2300 t of food/year from landfill and 5 895 000 meals a year, while contributing to savings of 10 000 tons of CO2 emissions and GBP 6.3 million among its customers.
Four Betters
Better environment
