London, March 2019 – Winnow launches its new AI-enabled product, Winnow Vision, to revolutionise food waste management in commercial kitchens for the benefit of both businesses and future generations.
Using a camera, a set of smart scales and the same type of machine learning technology found in autonomous vehicles, Winnow Vision ‘learns’ to recognise different foods being thrown in the bin and calculates the financial and environment cost of this discarded food to commercial kitchens. Businesses and chefs can then adjust their food purchasing decisions accordingly, reducing their spending and tackling a fundamental problem of food waste: overproduction.
The launch follows a proof of concept phase launched in January 2018 with early adopter partners IKEA and Emaar Hospitality Group, to test Winnow Vision’s technology in leading commercial kitchens around the world. Winnow and its early adopter partners have been working on the technology since October 2017. The pilot proved categorically that Winnow Vision surpasses human levels of accuracy and enables chefs to run smarter, more profitable and more efficient kitchens.
The launch of Winnow Vision follows the success of Winnow’s first device, which consisted of a set of smart scales and identified food manually. Winnow has helped commercial kitchens save more than $30 million in annualised food costs which equates to preventing over 23 million meals going in the bin. The new, AI-powered Winnow Vision is already installed in over 75 kitchens and the technology will be rolled out to hundreds more this year.
Marc Zornes, CEO of Winnow, says: “Food waste is a global issue, and one that kitchens around the world are struggling with. Without visibility into what is being wasted, kitchens are wasting far more food than they think. By understanding and reporting food waste’s very real costs – both to the bottom line and the environment – Winnow Vision empowers chefs to take action. Using technology that learns and improves with each use, Winnow Vision has the ability to tackle food waste on a global scale.”
Globally, a third of all food never reaches our forks. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses after the USA and China. Food waste is also a completely unnecessary financial burden for businesses to bear, costing the global economy around $1 trillion in lost output – equivalent to around 1.5 per cent of global GDP. Food waste costs commercial kitchens between five and 15 per cent of all food purchased, with some kitchens wasting up to 20 per cent of all the food they buy. Food waste costs the hospitality industry alone around $100bn every year – a number that Winnow Vision will slash.
With Winnow Vision, businesses install a piece of technology that can already recognise most food items and can be trained to learn other menu items in any kitchen. During the training and automation phases, the Winnow Vision system takes human input, providing a shortlist of possible menu items for kitchen staff to select, to quickly improve its predictions based on feedback. Over time, the system continues to improve and will automatically recognise food with no human interaction. Chefs can benefit from full reporting in their kitchens, helping cut food waste and save money with minimal to no effort.
Hege Sæbjørnsen, Country Sustainability Manager for IKEA UK & Ireland, said: “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at IKEA and a part of our DNA. We have set ourselves an ambitious target to cut our food waste by 50% across our operations before end of August 2020 and our partnership with Winnow is critical to realising that goal. We know that food waste is a complex issue, but Winnow Vision demonstrates that solutions to help tackle this don’t have to be.”
Lorena Lourido, Country Food Manager at IKEA UK & Ireland, said: “At IKEA, we want to inspire and enable the many people to change their behaviour when it comes to food waste, starting in our own operations. Winnow Vision has now been installed across 23 IKEA UK & Ireland stores and the feedback from the IKEA Food teams running our restaurant kitchens has been extremely positive so far.”
About IKEA Group
With a vision to create a better everyday life for the many people, IKEA offers well-designed, functional and affordable home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible are able to afford a beautiful and functional home. Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 11 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. It is the world’s largest home furnishing retailer operating 367 IKEA stores in 30 markets. These IKEA stores had 838 million visits during FY18 and 2.35 billion visits www.IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.
The Full Year Financial Report FY18 for the IKEA Group was published in November 2018.
About Emaar Hospitality Group
Emaar Hospitality Group LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emaar Properties PJSC, the Dubai-based global property developer, and manages Emaar’s hospitality and leisure projects globally.
Defining its competency in managing mixed-use property developments, Emaar Hospitality Group owns and manages a diversified portfolio of assets including hotels, serviced residences, golf clubs, polo club, marina and lifestyle dining restaurants.
Emaar Hospitality Group has defined its credentials in the hotel industry with its distinctive hotel brands - Address Hotels + Resorts and Vida Hotels and Resorts.
Address Hotels + Resorts has brought a fresh identity to the global hospitality and service sector by setting new benchmarks with its gracious hospitality and exceptional service standards. Address offers a more personal and engaging experience to guests in a premium lifestyle environment, enriching the lives of its guests with luxury, style and elegance. Address Hotels + Resorts is set to operate hotels and serviced residences in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, Maldives and other key markets in the region as well as in the UAE.
An upscale lifestyle hotel and residences brand, Vida Hotels and Resorts is for the new generation of business executives, entrepreneurs and leisure travellers. Positioned as a lively and vibrant hub where inspiring minds can create, connect and come alive, Vida hotels are a stimulating environment where style meets convenience and interactivity. Vida Hotels and Resorts has two properties in Dubai and is set to operate hotels and serviced residences in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and other key markets in the region as well as in the UAE.
Underlining its strength and contribution to shaping the hospitality sector of the nation, Emaar Hospitality Group has been awarded as the Official Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai and will provide authentic experiences with a strong local flavour at various locations across the Expo 2020 site, including VIP clubs and lounges, as well as in its hotels and restaurants in Dubai. www.emaarhospitality.com
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