Innovation is finding another useful target as it saves casinos money in the kitchen
Food waste is a global issue. Most foodservice operations work in a rushed environment, working under pressure and making sure the quota is met while assuring good quality food. Millions of dollars are wasted by food services every year and, with casinos offering buffet services, the food waste is even higher. There are many factors behind food waste – it could be a purchasing problem, a menu design issue, or even the delivery service. In casino kitchens, the problem often comes from overproduction and lack of kitchen best practices from the kitchen staff. For years, casino facilities have been exploring different ways to reduce food waste, such as adjusting portions and better training of the staff, but artificial intelligence (AI) is offering a solution that only improves with time.
A food technology company named Winnow wants to help the global foodservice industry to save nearly $1 billion by 2025 by reducing food waste. AI continues to offer a useful application to a wider variety of industries. Winnow’s CEO Peter Krebs is presenting its AI software, a monitoring system to help chefs track their food waste alongside a few cameras pointing at trash bins. These cameras will collect data that will be processed by machine learning technology, eventually being able to identify, measure and track all food waste automatically.
After gathering the data and displaying it in tablets, chefs can also make more informed decisions to fight food waste from the core. Winnow Vision has been developed to the point that it has surpassed human-level accuracy, meaning that in the future, these systems will be doing all the food waste tracking without even needing human interaction. Krebs said that, based on Winnow data collection to date, around 10-`15% of purchased food ends up being wasted, Winnow vision will offer a 2-8% savings in food purchasing costs.
Another side effect of implementing a food waste technology in casino kitchens is that chefs and consumers will rethink the food that is being thrown to the garbage. Krebs says that nearly one-third of all the food produce across the world ends up being wasted.