This World Food Day, Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) has committed to reducing food waste by 35 per cent across its central operations in Dubai.

To reach its ambitious goal, EKFC has engaged Winnow to gradually roll out an advanced food waste management system in its state-of-the-art catering facilities.

Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, the tool will enable EKFC to automatically monitor and control food waste for the benefit of its customers, its people and broader communities.

Saeed Mohammed, chief executive of Emirates Flight Catering, said: “We are dedicated to investing in the latest technologies to optimise our operations and minimise our environmental footprint.

“Food waste management has always been an area of focus for EKFC and we have already achieved remarkable results through improved data collection and reporting.

“Implementing new ways of working, supported by technology will help us step up to the next level and further enhance operational efficiency.

“We look forward to delivering on our ambitious goal of reducing food waste by more than one-third across our central operations.”

Around one-third of all food grown in the world goes to waste and landfill.

EKFC is committed to reducing that and has taken various initiatives to make a difference.

In an effort to use the whole product, in the financial year 2019-20 close to 500 kilogrammes of food items, including fruits, vegetables, bakery items and meat, were saved each day to be used in small goods, or were reused for different purposes in retail operations.

Marc Zornes, chief executive and co-founder of Winnow, said: “We are delighted to partner with Emirates Flight Catering helping them in their quest to cut their food waste by 35 per cent.

“Food waste is a global problem that we must solve urgently to combat the effects of climate change.

“Artificial Intelligence has an important role to play in reducing avoidable wastage, and forward-thinking foodservice providers like Emirates Flight Catering prove that this technology delivers real world results for both people and planet.”

The new AI-enabled food waste management system will enable EKFC to significantly improve reporting and data collection to further reduce food waste.

Using a camera, a set of smart scales and the same type of machine learning technology found in autonomous vehicles, the advanced system ‘learns’ to recognise different foods being thrown in the bin and calculates the financial and environment cost of this discarded food to the kitchens.

EKFC will adjust its food purchasing decisions accordingly.