Food waste is a serious problem globally. Around the world, about one-third of all food that’s produced is either lost or wasted every year. This amounts to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food.
Food waste costs the hospitality sector over $100bn globally. Actors of the industry implementing food waste targets are getting ahead of the curve by making their operations more sustainable and significantly more profitable.
At Winnow we believe that food is too valuable to be wasted, and that technology can transform the way we prepare it. Winnow connect commercial kitchens to the cloud allowing them to record and analyse exactly what is put in the bin. This gives chefs the information necessary to drive improvements in their production processes to cut food waste in half, saving money and reducing their environmental footprint at the same time.
Companies that see the potential gains of food waste reduction will not only address a major environmental issue but making significant cost savings too. Our clients have driven significant uplift in their gross margins by reducing food costs, i.e. throwing less food away. Beyond these food cost savings the kitchens are more labour efficient, sending less waste to landfill, and building stronger relationships with their clients.
In the past three years we have been working with hundreds of kitchens and we found that they simply don’t know how much is being wasted. Large kitchens can waste up to 20 percent of the food they buy. The reason for this is that they lack the correct tools to measure what is thrown into the bin. Measuring food waste by volume is not enough. You need to understand the true costs of what you are wasting and monitor it in an ongoing way to drive sustained change.
What gets measured gets managed. Once you know exactly where waste is occurring, improved forecasting and production planning allows you to solve the issue at its root cause. Our work with Accor Hotels and Compass Group – to name two example clients – have shown that sites which take action to measure and monitor waste can cut food waste by 50% or more by value.
The initiatives above are the examples leading the way on how companies should address this huge challenge.
There’s little reason for companies not to act. There’s clearly a strong business case for making this a priority: measuring and monitoring waste can deliver significant cost savings. It is a real win-win for business and the environment.
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