2024: Using Artificial Intelligence for Reducing Food Waste in Commercial Kitchens
Worldwide, one-third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste. In the hospitality and food-service industry alone, the cost of wasted food is over $100 billion per year. This project will explore using AI tools to reduce food waste in commercial food service establishments, a goal that would benefit food security, environmental resources, and private businesses’ bottom lines. Along with colleagues at Cornell Tech and industry partner Winnow, the researchers will first examine the effectiveness of a computer vision-based system that accurately measures and classifies food waste. Early results suggest that deployment of such a system can reduce food waste by as much as 30%, three months after adoption. Then they’ll build and test AI assistants to help kitchen managers with front-line tasks that can reduce food waste, such as managing inventory, providing directions on how and when to produce foods, and detecting mistakes in food production decisions.
Investigator: Elena Belavina, Operations, Technology, and Information Management