Interview with Constance Lambert, Regional Manager for Winnow Vision in France
Why is solving food waste important in the hospitality sector?
Food waste costs the hospitality industry nearly €100 billion each year, and causes considerable environmental damage.
Winnow’s data across 250 hotels globally reveals that food waste in kitchens is typically between 4-12% of food costs. In many cases, the waste is higher than 20%.
Cutting food waste in half ensures kitchens run more efficiently and sustainably, and increase their profitability.
Why have Winnow launched an artificial intelligence (AI) product to tackle food waste?
We believe AI is a game-changer for the hospitality industry and the fight against food waste on a global scale. Winnow Vision was created over the last two years with some world leading technical experts in AI to automate food waste management. This transformative technology helps kitchen teams to run more efficiently, and improves data accuracy.
Automation also reduces the barriers to entry for thousands more kitchens. Once fully trained, there will be no need for recurring staff training or data input. Kitchens only need to throw away food to receive insights that pinpoint what has been wasted and in what volume.
How does Winnow Vision work? How accurate is it?
Winnow Vision uses computer vision (a form of AI) to identify wasted food. The system takes photos of wasted food as it is thrown away and uses the photos to train itself to recognise the wasted food.
The system consists of the Winnow Vision box that connects the kitchen to the cloud, a tablet with the kitchen menu uploaded onto it, a camera, and a scale on which the bin sits on.
In terms of accuracy, Winnow Vision surpasses kitchen level accuracy for categorising food waste. For busy kitchen teams, categorisation of food waste without Winnow Vision is between 70-75% accurate. Winnow Vision recognises the right item, first time, over 80% of the time and will get better with time. Teams are amazed by the precision of the technology.
Which hotel chains do Winnow work with already?
Winnow has been implemented in many of the leading hotel brands in the world since the company was founded, including: AccorHotels, Hilton, Marriott, Shangri-la and Club Med.
For instance, watch how Novotel Warsaw saves 27,000 meals and €18,000 each year by reducing food waste.
After a successful testing period from early 2018 with Middle East hotel group Emaar Hospitality, Winnow Vision offers a unique opportunity for other hotel brands to show their leadership and scale how they tackle food waste.
How can people get in touch to learn more?
Winnow will be presenting at the Global Lodging Forum in Paris on April 15 & 16. If you will also be there and would like to meet, let me know.
If not, request a demo through our website and a food waste expert will run you through the tool and the possible savings for your hotel.
