The first fully automated food waste management solution for the food and beverage industry

Every day there are millions of tons of food being wasted. Two thirds of all food thrown away is said to be edible food that could have been avoided. This avoidable food waste occurring along the entire supply chain has detrimental impacts on the environment. Reducing avoidable food waste would prevent unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate climate change. Looking at the hospitality industry, food waste has become an increasing concern and more and more restaurant owners see the potential to save costs in that area. According to a survey by Gastro Suisse in 2016, increasing operating costs is the second biggest challenge faced by restaurant owners after maintaining sales numbers. Supporting restaurants to reduce their food waste empowers them to operate more cost efficiently and consequently increasing their profit margins. This connection between cost and food waste inspired the two co-founders, Anastasia Hofmann and Naomi MacKenzie, to create KITRO, a fully automated food waste management solution. KITRO aims to tackle the issue of food waste and low profit margins in the food & beverage (F&B) industry by providing users with an intuitive and non-intrusive tool to measure and mitigate food waste. With a total addressable market size of 1.3 million outlets in Europe, KITRO’s main focus will be to develop and launch the product in Switzerland before rapidly expanding into neighbouring European countries. Addressing the Swiss market it will focus on the top hotel groups and canteen operators to ensure quick expansion opportunities into neighbouring countries. With bi-weekly reports outlining the findings, users are empowered to make informed decisions and optimize work practices leading to a reduction in food waste, food cost and their negative environmental impact. While solutions to measure and analyze food waste exist, they fail to achieve this in a non-intrusive and automated way. KITRO’s solution has a zero transaction time as it requires no manual input from the user’s side. This allows customers to achieve greater reduction results and higher cost savings. Since November 2017, KITRO is testing the 3rd version of their hardware prototype within different outlets. The aim is to develop the product with the users to ensure the creation of a holistic and customer centric solution. KITRO’s goal is to change the way that food waste is handled and bring back the value of food, so it is appreciated and not wasted. Submit to be part of the One Planet Programme. Since starting out measurements in November 2017 we have saved over 50'000 meals. This has been achieved through working with 14 key industry players. Restricted to only 10 devices KITRO plans to launch 35 device onto the market in May followed by hundreds in 2020. The food saving impact of KITRO will multiply significantly following the growth in product units and customer reach. This impact doesn't event consider the water, energy and labor resources that are preserved through the use of KITRO. Additionally the KITRO team is excited about the impact KITRO can have in terms of bringing awareness to this growing issue. With the plan to develop a certification as well as a food waste index, the idea is to multiple the food waste reduction effect along the entire supply chain.