Who is Wastewatchers

Nobody wants to waste food and yet it is a big global problem. In Europe 20% of food is lost or wasted and close to 30% globally according to the UN. Not to speak about the growing number of hungry people.

The earth’s resources are limited and under increasing pressure.

It is Wastewatchers’ mission to prevent food waste in the food and hospitality branch. Since 2016 Wastewatchers have been fighting together with (local) governments and companies against food waste.

While working in restaurants, the Wastewatchers team has experienced that a lot of food is wasted. On average 10% of the purchased and processed food is thrown away, which makes chefs unhappy – it is their skill and passion – and moreover causes economic loss.

In addition to the personal motivations of a restaurant to prevent food waste, there are also global motivations as it is unexplainable that the Western world is throwing away so much food, while other parts of the planet suffer from food scarcity. Besides, food waste is responsible for 6% of greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest CO2 polluter of the world, behind China and the U.S.

Wastewatchers first of all promotes heightened awareness of the problem and has developed the following solutions: tooling, business intelligence, concept change and the application of AI/ML technology.

Our main service is to supply a fully automatic food waste monitoring quantification connected to the POS-system (Point of sales system, the cash registers). On a daily basis Wastewatchers are automatically monitoring sales and food waste of 150 locations. The results are collected and submitted in monthly reports. Those reports contain management information, business intelligence, incentives to improve the business and CO2 reporting. The receiver of these monthly reports can be the director, sustainable manager, regional manager, location manager or chef on the work place.

A long time client is Hutten Catering, a big catering company whose unique selling point is providing a green concept to their clients. Green in the sense of sustainable choices and healthy choices. Hutten Catering services business catering, parties, events and healthcare locations. We serve all their business cafeterias and healthcare locations with our service.

Due to Covid-19 consumer behaviour has changed quickly, which demands a changing strategy from the food and hospitality branch. Together with our clients, we’re developing an online ordering system where Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is used to project the best choice of the day, for both the guest and the catering company. The developing phase of this innovation is in the Proof of Concept phase.