Food waste reduction
Digital food waste tracking for commercial kitchens
Reducing food waste starts with reliable data. SmartKitchen helps commercial kitchens track food waste by weight, value and CO₂e across the full process from storage and production to serving and plate waste.
The solution is designed for commercial kitchens and food service organisations that want to reduce waste, improve profitability and support sustainability targets without adding heavy manual work to daily routines. The level of detail and recording method can be selected based on the kitchen’s own workflow.
- Measures food waste by weight, value and CO₂e
- Speeds up waste recording with a digital waste scale
- Identifies where and when food waste occurs
- Classifies edible and inedible food waste
- Tracks waste from production to serving and plate waste
- Analyses waste in relation to production, serving or guest volumes
- Adapts to the kitchen’s workflows and tracking needs
- Brings food waste data into one browser-based service
See how food waste tracking works in practice
Explore food waste tracking products and license: Waste Scale, Plate Waste app, manual recording, reports and browser-based service.
Record, track, and reduce food waste easily and reliably
Food waste causes significant costs for professional kitchens. Under the guidance of restaurant management, the staff strives to reduce losses. Cost efficiency can be improved with the help of the Food Waste Tracker by monitoring where the highest costs arise and by taking targeted measures to reduce the waste. The solution is also a good tool for food consumption assessment, as it can be used to record the amount of production and serving in addition to wastage.
It is possible to achieve remarkable savings yearly. At the same time, the carbon footprint of the restaurant is also reduced. Do you know the amount and value of food loss in your restaurant?
Save staff time!
Forget pen and paper, automate routines.
Kitchen staff is usually busy and the traditional way of recording waste on paper or in an Excel spreadsheet takes too much time. The collected data is therefore often very incomplete and the true amount of waste is not known. The Food Waste Tracker is an easy-to-use, real-time, and accurate solution for tracking and analyzing food waste.
Food Waste Tracker is used to monitor the overall amount of food waste (kg), the value (€ or other currency) and the carbon footprint (kgCO2e). The total amount and impact of food waste can, for example, be seen with one view from all monitored service points. The data can be sorted by food waste categories and examined by selecting desired time periods.
The soltution is also a good tool for food consumption assessment, as it can be used to record the amount of production and serving in addition to wastage.
Optimize production.
Take waste into account when planning the menu.
FoodWasteTracker can retrieve the day’s menu from the menu application used by the kitchen, for example POS or production planning systems. The meal items from the menu are automatically displayed on the waste scale for recording the waste. The amount of food waste is analyzed individually for each meal item. Waste data can also be transferred directly to the production planning system. The next time you plan to prepare the meal in question, you will know the correct production amount based on the previous waste data. The amount of food that goes to waste can be significantly reduced.
Plate Waste app
The Plate Waste app is part of the Food Waste Tracker solution. It shows restaurant customers the amount of plate waste. It is well-suited for buffet and line restaurants, where guests return and empty their plates into a container on top of the Waste Scale.
The amount of plate waste is displayed on both visually and as a reading. The app also illustrates if the amount of personal plate waste is exceptionally high. Showing plate waste encourages measures to reduce food waste. The loss is reduced when the amount of food to be prepared can be better predicted. Read more
Customer stories
SmartKitchen solutions in daily use
See how food service organisations use SmartKitchen to track and reduce food waste. Read customer stories →
"Studies show that businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and food retailers, earn financial returns by investing in food waste reduction."
The Guardian
Leading with knowledge
- Define the data accuracy and collection points of waste
- Make sure that staff records the food waste as agreed
- Monitor the total number of deviations
- Initiate corrective actions and monitor their implementation
- Ensure a declining trend in food waste
- The information collected is reliable and up to date because the kitchen staff makes the entries in real conditions
Analyze visualized data
- Why food waste occurs
- What food waste consists of
- At what stage does food loss occur
- The amount of food waste, its value and carbon footprint
Choose the appropriate recording method for each collection point
- Entered manually with a web browser
- Entered manually with a mobile application
- By reading the weight wirelessly from the WasteScale and recording with the mobile app
- Automatic transfer of weight data from the WasteScales under waste bins
5 seconds to enter the data with WasteScale
- SmartKitchen FoodWasteTracker is best suited for a collection point with a lot of events, such as a production kitchen.
- Dump the loss to a waste container on top of the wireless scale. Select the category from the touch screen.
- It only takes five seconds to record accurate and real-time data.
Frequently asked questions about food waste tracking
What does food waste tracking mean in a commercial kitchen?
Food waste tracking means measuring and recording food waste so that the kitchen can see where, when and what type of waste occurs. The data can be used to improve production, serving, purchasing and daily operating practices.
What food waste data does SmartKitchen show?
SmartKitchen shows food waste by weight, value and CO₂e. The data can be viewed by location, time period, category, waste stage and waste type.
Can the kitchen choose the level of detail for food waste tracking?
Yes. The level of food waste tracking can be defined based on the organisation’s goals and the kitchen’s workflow. Recording can start with a lighter setup and be expanded later, for example by adding categories, waste stages, edible and inedible waste classification or production volume tracking.
Can food waste be tracked as edible and inedible waste?
Yes. Food waste can be classified, for example, as edible and inedible waste. This helps separate waste that could potentially have been avoided from waste related to peels, bones or other preparation by-products.
Can the same scale be used to track production volumes?
Yes. The same Waste Scale can also be used to track production volumes. When production and food waste data are available in the same service, waste can be compared with the amount of food produced and analysed as a share of production.
Can food waste be compared with serving volumes or guest numbers?
Yes. Food waste data can be used together with production, serving or guest volume data. This helps identify whether waste is relatively high in specific locations, dishes, time periods or serving situations.
Can food waste be tracked without a Waste Scale?
Yes. Food waste can also be recorded manually. Waste Scale speeds up recording and improves data consistency, but the service can also be started with a lighter setup. Different operating models can be combined within the organisation when needed, for example by using Waste Scale in some kitchens or recording points and manual recording elsewhere.
Is the solution suitable for multi-site organisations?
Yes. SmartKitchen is suitable for both single kitchens and multi-site food service organisations. Management can monitor development centrally and compare results between locations using the same data structure.
Can food waste tracking be combined with digital HACCP?
Yes. SmartKitchen food waste tracking can be used as a standalone solution or together with digital HACCP. Customers can start with the most relevant need and expand later without introducing a separate system.
How does food waste tracking help reduce waste?
Tracking helps identify where the largest waste streams occur and where actions should be focused. When waste is visible by weight, value and CO₂e, and can be compared with production or serving volumes, the impact of changes can be followed in practice.
Book a demo
Book a short introduction or request more information. We will review how the solution fits your operation and what kind of setup would best support your kitchens.
We respond to all inquiries quickly.