Reduce food waste and manual labour

Estimates suggesting that global land deployed to grow food that is never consumed equals the size of Mexico, is alarming to say the least. Hence, issues were raised at the Gulfood Innovation Summit. Two key regional players, namely Michael Ellis, Chief Culinary Officer of Jumeirah Group, and Michael Barsties, Head of Food Waste Heroes Programme, both of whom joined the Summit panel on ‘Foodtech in the Kitchen’, urged the region’s F&B players to tackle food waste reduction with smart technologies.

“There are two areas where smart kitchens can have an enormous impact: firstly, by reducing the amount of repetitive manual labor that is a big part of much of food preparation, and secondly by reducing food waste, which is to some an extent an issue for most kitchens today. These innovations will come about both by developments in kitchen equipment, but also in the use of data mining techniques to allow chefs to anticipate how many of a certain dish will be ordered on a given day based on historical trends,” Ellis said prior to the summit.

Employing technology available to the food and beverage sector goes a long way in solving many of the industry's problems specifically wasted resources. (Photo: Dreamstime)

“Food waste across the region has surged in recent years due to a huge increase in the number of hotels and restaurants,” explained Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice President, Exhibitions & Events, DWTC. “Regionwide this has now led to the launch of initiatives to tackle the problem. In the UAE, for example, Dubai plans to be the first city in the region to achieve zero food waste through the UAE Food Bank. It’s important that F&B professionals in the region understand the issue and the role they can play in its solution.”

Some 40% of the UAE’s total waste is derived from food, suggested a report by engineering solutions firm Danfoss. While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone suffers from USD 13.3 billion of economic impact of food waste annually.

According to a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around 1.3 billion tons of food produced for human usage is either wasted or lost annually. Food losses and waste add up to roughly USD 680 billion in industrialised countries, while its USD 310 billion for developing countries.

Taking steps toward eliminating production inefficiencies in food preparation will go a long way in helping the industry -- and the planet -- cope with limited resources. 

A commercial or backend kitchen for example, can take advantage of today's IoT technologies. A network of appliances and devices that use a connection to inter-communicate can help create a smart and remotely controlled kitchen. Ideally things can run smoothly in an IoT kitchen. Experts provide an example of a refrigerator tracking and ordering inventory on your behalf in addition to using technology to avoid repetitive tasks; it can also remotely monitor the kitchen from anywhere around the world.