Hospitality Leaders and The UAE Ministry of Climate Change celebrate revolutionary ai product

Championing the pioneers behind fighting food waste within the UAE, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in cooperation with food-tech company Winnow co-hosted “Vision” on Monday, 2nd September. The event celebrates the launch of Winnow’s new AI-enabled tool Winnow Vision. The tool allows kitchens to automatically track food waste. It uses computer vision (a form of artificial intelligence) to help chefs easily pinpoint waste, cut costs and save time. It is expected to revolutionize food waste management in the UAE.

The Winnow Vision system takes photos of wasted food as it’s thrown away and, using the images, the machine trains itself to recognise what has been thrown in the bin. Winnow’s test systems have reached and surpassed human levels of accuracy in identifying wasted foods.

This means that, over time, these systems will enable your kitchens to automatically register food waste without any human interaction. Food will be thrown in the bin and the data is captured automatically. This increases data accuracy and ease of use.

The Winnow Vision system has since been adopted by 100+ sites globally, with customers such as IKEA, IHG and Emaar Hospitality Group as clients. 

During the event, opening remarks were made by His Excellency Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment followed by the CEO and founder of Winnow, Marc Zornes providing a product demo on Winnow Vision. A panel discussing the role of technology and artificial intelligence to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals followed, which featured the Minister of AI - His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olamaand, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment along with the CEO of Winnow, Marc Zornes. 

In line with the global ambition to halve food waste by 2030, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment launched The UAE Food Waste Pledge in partnership with Winnow. The pledge aims to connect food waste pioneers within the hospitality industry, with the common goal of saving 3 million meals yearly by 2020 across the UAE. The initiative has already seen widespread participation  - with notable Pledge Makers joining the scheme. This includes hospitality and catering organizations, such as Majid Al Futtaim, Emaar Hospitality, AccorHotels, Rotana, IHG and Compass, along with many more who signed on at the event such as Etihad, JA Resorts and Jumeirah. 

His Excellency Dr. Thani said: "The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has partnered with Winnow in a pledge to save more than two million meals in 2019 and as many as three million by 2020. The long-term goal is to cut food waste by a total of 50 per cent by 2030. Products such as Winnow Vision are expected to play an important role in supporting the government in hitting those ambitious targets and to revolutionise the food management in the UAE."

Speaking on the partnership, His Excellency Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said, “The excessive expenditure incurred in putting surplus food on the table, the tons of wasted food tossed into landfills every year pose a grave threat to the health of our ecosystem. We encourage citizens and residents of the UAE to play their part by reducing the amount of food they waste and educating people around them to do the same. This will enable our next generations to enjoy a more prosperous future.”

Marc Zornes, co-founder, and CEO of Winnow said: “The hospitality sector in the UAE is leading the charge in the global fight against food waste. We are incredibly proud of the fantastic results chefs partnering with Winnow have achieved. These pioneers have proved that it is possible to do the right thing for both business and the planet. However, we are really just getting started, and we look forward to scaling our impact with our partners as we work towards an ambitious target”

If your business is food, you are invited to join this community. Food and hospitality businesses can join this community by pledging at www.foodwastepledge.ae.