Melco Resorts & Entertainment has announced the installation of Artificial Intelligence-powered system Winnow Vision across its properties to help eliminate food waste.
The system uses a camera, smart scales and the same type of machine learning technology found in autonomous vehicles to recognize food being discarded and calculate the financial and environmental impact of the food waste for commercial kitchens
By doing so, it helps kitchens adjust their food purchasing decisions accordingly.
Winnow Vision will now be rolled out in all of Melco’s self-operated buffet restaurants, having saved 3,915kg of food waste – equivalent to almost 17 tonnes of CO2 emissions – during a six-month trial at City of Dreams in Macau, representing a 67% reduction.
“Melco is dedicated to tackling one of the industry’s biggest challenges, food waste, while inspiring others to follow suit,” said Melco’s Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Denise Chan.
“We are excited about continuing our collaboration with Winnow across our resorts to lead the charge against food waste in Macau. The AI system initiative allows us to maximize operational efficiency and data accuracy across both front- and heart of-house food outlets, with the ability to significantly reduce food waste as we work towards our goal of achieving zero waste and contributing to circular economic leadership in Asia by the year 2030.”
Melco said it is also planning to work with Winnow to measure plate waste in its employee dining areas, aiming to increase internal awareness on the issue.
