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In 2022, Change Inc. wrote about Orbisk. The Utrecht-based company combats food waste in the hospitality industry with smart cameras and scales. How is the scale-up doing now that food prices are rising, AI is developing rapidly and sustainability is increasingly on the agenda?

Orbisk's cameras are now in 400 to 500 locations around the world.

Food waste is still a big problem, but Orbisk founder Olaf van der Veen is by no means pessimistic. "There is much more attention to food waste now than ten years ago. The way we look at food and the sustainable component has changed. We can see a trend going in the right direction. But we are far from there. The food waste we are concerned with is at the end of the chain. It was born from a hospitality heart, restaurants and hotels don't want their guests to lack anything. That just strikes a bit of a chord. With our technology, companies can reduce their food waste without affecting the guest. I think that is precisely the strength of our field. If, for example, it is about eating less meat and more vegetarian, then guests will see that reflected on the plate. That does not apply to our invention. We can make the waste mountain smaller, while guests don't realize it."

What exactly does Orbisk do?

Orbisk places smart cameras above waste containers at hospitality organizations. It is linked to a scale and automatically records all food discarded down to the ingredient level. This allows professional kitchens to know exactly what, how much and how often food is thrown away. With this insight, they can take targeted action to combat food waste.

Data

In essence, Orbisk's product has not changed in recent years. "Basically, the camera and scale still work the same as when we launched it. That said, there have been tremendous technological advances. We benefit from that. We also have a lot more data at our disposal. In 2022 we had roughly sixty to seventy monitors in catering establishments. Now there are six hundred. The database is growing rapidly and learning from all the data it has at its disposal. Our product is getting smarter all the time. We are also making strides in ease of use. I firmly believe in human laziness. That means we keep making our product faster and more user-friendly."

Worldwide

By now, Orbisk's cameras are in four hundred to five hundred locations around the world. "By now we are in 32 countries," Van der Veen clarifies. "Kazakhstan, Congo, Hawaii, Dubai, we go around the world map. Although it is not the case that we also have a team in every country. Meanwhile it is the case in Spain, France and the United Emirates. But by no means everywhere."

Hotel chains and cruise ships

Customers include international hotel chains. "In those places, an awful lot of food is prepared and, unfortunately, also thrown away. That's where we can make a huge difference. We recently started a partnership with all the hotels that fall under the Accor Group. This is the fourth largest hotel chain and accounts for more than five thousand hotels worldwide. During a pilot at ten European hotels, food waste was reduced by 22 percent after six months. So the impact is big. Although my dream is to eventually help not only big names, but also individual restaurants. But because there is a lot to be gained precisely at the chains, that is where the focus is now."

Orbisk's technology can also be found on cruise ships. "Only the cameras, because at sea the scales don't work. So we are looking for ways to measure more precisely with just a camera and help customers better. We put a lot of time into that. Cruise ships may be a niche, but they are a big niche. There are sometimes as many as 25 restaurants on the huge ships. It comes as no surprise that a lot of food is quickly lost then."

Price, sustainable appearance and legislation

Business-wise, Orbisk is doing well. According to the founder, there are three drivers for joining forces with the Dutch scale-up. "First of all, the price. Inflation has also hit food. Purchase prices are higher. That means more margin goes into the trash when food is thrown away. Catering companies can no longer afford that. Another reason is sustainable appearance. Not only do guests increasingly value this, so do staff members. Gen Z is now entering the job market. They have quite high expectations of their employers and would rather not work for a company that does nothing to reduce CO2 emissions and food waste. Finally, legislation is coming up everywhere. Large companies will be forced to state what they emit and what actions they take as a result. In Spain, this is already mandatory. There, large chains already have to report, for example at waste level. This will flow through to other countries. I can only imagine that eventually this will be regulated at the European level and there will be uniform regulations. In this way, our product will become more and more relevant."

The hospitality industry waste-free

What is the dot on the horizon for Orbisk founder Van der Veen? "We are now mainly focusing on the back end, the food that disappears into the trash. For example, our systems know that a certain number of tomatoes have been thrown away in a restaurant on Thursdays in recent weeks. The kitchen itself has to figure out how to adjust purchasing accordingly. That's where we are now. What I want to get to is using data from purchasing, sales, the menu, guest numbers, weather conditions and waste flow on the front end to predict how the food flow is going. If you know what you're going to need tomorrow, the hospitality industry can operate waste-free. That's the holy grail."

To achieve that, collaboration is essential, he says. "Right now, the problem is that there are separate systems for purchasing, for reservations, but also for our solution. These do not yet work together. I'm not going to build a whole POS system myself as well, so the solutions of various parties have to start communicating with each other. Technically that is quite possible. The difficulty lies in practice, but it is certainly possible. If we all crack that nut, we can really make strides."

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