Food waste is a serious problem in this country. 30-40% of food in the US is thrown out every year. At home there are many ways for individuals and families to fight this problem, from composting to getting creative in the kitchen. However, the home is not the only place where food waste can get out of hand. In fact, most of the food waste that is produced in the US comes before it even reaches the consumer.
In restaurants, 4-10% of food that enters the back door of the average restaurant never even hits the table. This could be because of spoiling while in storage, over prepping, or a host of other reasons, but the bottom line is that this food is wasted before it’s given a chance to be eaten. Food can vary in how harmful it is to the environment when its wasted based on a number of factors. If there is a long processing and shipping process and the food ends up in a landfill, the harm done to the environment is much greater than if some locally bought produce is composted. Restaurant food waste can accumulate quite a bit of a carbon footprint, and it causes lots of greenhouse gas emissions.
Solving the problem of food waste in restaurants is a very difficult task. To manage food wasted by the customer after ordering, the only real option is to change portion size, which can be detrimental to the business of the restaurant itself. This means that the main avenue to provide solutions lies in how we can help restaurants manage their inventory, prep, or already made food. While some companies like Too Good To Go are helping restaurants get rid of their leftovers, ClearCOGS is tackling waste before it happens.
Our philosophy is simple, if your restaurant is running as efficiently as possible, it’s not producing waste. By using our AI and Machine Learning techniques, we’ve been able to know how much restaurants will need to prepare for a shift with up to 80% more accuracy than without our product. By telling restaurants how much they’ll actually need to order and prep each day, we’re cutting their waste in half. Giving restaurants the resources to know exactly what to expect each day has been our method of cutting down on food waste.
What we love about our product is the win-win for our customers and the Earth. When their food waste diminishes, restaurants are also losing less money. They are more prepared for every shift, so each day they have more happy customers and a higher profit margin. In fact, for every dollar a restaurant invests in preventing food waste, they increase their profits by $8. This is what makes the ClearCOGS team’s jobs so easy and rewarding. By helping our customers make their business more efficient and profitable, we are also able to help the Earth.