"The restaurant and hospitality industry loses over $100 billion a year in food waste. And ReFED's 2025 report on food waste in the US found that in 2023, businesses were left with surplus food equivalent to $108 billion in revenue. Of course, the issue isn't just costing companies money - it also hurts the environment, making up 8% of the world's carbon emissions."
"In 2022, Costa Rica's Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo turned to Winnow, an AI-enabled food-waste management solution, to better plan for the hotel's breakfast buffet. Used by chefs in over 90 countries, Winnow's system includes a scale to determine how much waste is thrown in the trash, and a motion-sensor camera that can detect over 1,000 types of food; it then delivers this data to users in real time on a screen and in the form of daily and weekly reports."
AI is becoming integrated into restaurant operations to reduce food waste, cut costs, and reshape production planning. The restaurant and hospitality industry loses over $100 billion a year in food waste, and ReFED's 2025 report found that in 2023 businesses were left with surplus food equivalent to $108 billion in revenue. Food waste contributes about 8% of global carbon emissions. AI-enabled tools like Winnow use scales and motion-sensor cameras to quantify and classify discarded items in real time, producing daily and weekly reports. Other startups such as Orbisk and Leanpath use scanners and training to help kitchens repurpose scraps and right-size output.
Read at Business Insider
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