Spotted: About one third of all food produced is wasted, with about five per cent of that wastage occurring in the food service industry. Singaporean startup Lumitics has developed a novel way to fight food waste in commercial kitchens.

Lumitics’ system, dubbed Insight, uses sensor technology and proprietary image recognition to weigh and identify the precise types of food thrown away. The device is designed to aid in analysing waste to determine exactly what is being wasted and how to prevent this – for example, by purchasing different amounts of certain foods or utilising trimmings more efficiently.

Because it can analyse the exact foods being thrown away, Insight can also tell chefs what foods are more or less popular with guests, informing menu planning and the amount of different foods prepared each day. Lumitics claims that, on average, its solution helps commercial kitchens reduce 30 per cent of their food waste and up to 8 per cent of their food cost.

The company has so far held five seed and pre-seed funding rounds. However, the company is also concentrating on developing partnerships, such as a recent deal with Diversey to place Insight in more commercial kitchens outside the Asia-Pacific region.

Food waste is a huge problem, which is why Springwise has spotted a growing number of innovations designed to tackle it. From an app that helps families avoid food waste to repurposing food waste as new food – there is no shortage of ideas for driving down waste.

Written By: Lisa Magloff