Accor steps up commitment to reducing food waste across the MEA portfolio on World Food Day

 Accor, a world-leading augmented hospitality group, has teamed up with Diversey, a hotel industry total solutions provider with the aim of tackling food waste in hotel kitchens across its Middle East and Africa (MEA) portfolio in partnership with Winnow.

The partnership, announced today in honour of World Food Day – an annual global event dedicated to eliminating world hunger – will see Accor gradually roll out Winnow’s new cutting-edge AI-enabled food waste management technology.

The system is already supporting chefs in 17 kitchens across Novotel, Ibis, Rixos, Sofitel, Pullman, Fairmont and MGallery hotels in the region, resulting in a 69% waste reduction, which equates to approximately 800,000 meals being saved over the past three years.

By 2020, a further 30 luxury brand properties will have adopted Winnow Vision, which uses a computer vision – a form of AI which enable kitchens to automatically register food waste without any human interaction over time and a smart metre attached to bins in hotel kitchens that analyses data to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens by easily pinpointing waste to cut costs and save time.

Winnow is also playing an advisory role to Accor as its accelerates its efforts to reduce food waste region-wide. This will involve the Group adopting the firm’s new market leading AI technology designed to maximise operational efficiency and data accuracy.

“We live in a world where in developed countries, food waste is on the rise, yet at the same time, one in seven people suffer from malnutrition globally. As the Middle East and Africa’s leading hospitality company, it is our responsibility to do our utmost to restore this balance,” said Mark Willis, CEO, Middle East and Africa, Accor.

“Cutting food waste across our regional Food & Beverage operations is a top priority, and our partnership with Diversey signals our commitment to this target as we look to roll out its market-leading food waste technology across our entire regional portfolio in the future.”

Mehdi Belaribi, Director of Global Accounts, Diversey, said: “At this current juncture, people, business and the environment demand bright solutions to the world’s sustainability challenges. At Diversey, we are using the very latest technology to reduce waste in water, energy or labour and food through the value delivered by Winnow.”

Marc Zornes, CEO, Winnow, added: “At Winnow our core belief is that food is far too valuable to waste, and we know that technology can transform the way commercial kitchens and chefs use food. We are delighted to work with Accor to create intelligent hotel kitchens that help the food and beverage and culinary team’s achieve greater visibility and make decisions that reduce food waste and costs to the benefit of all.”

Yearly projections based on Winnow technology rolled out at 40+ Accor properties across the Middle East & Africa

Accor’s Diversey partnership supports the Group’s global healthy and sustainable food charter, which sets out ‘9 commitments’ to be achieved by the end of 2020 as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility platform, Planet 21.

Top of the agenda is to cut food waste across its international portfolio of properties by 30% by rolling out an extensive food waste-reduction programme and giving food products a second life.

The additional eight commitments set out 2020 targets for sourcing local food and suppliers; boosting organic produce and supporting agroecology; using suppliers committed to animal welfare; promoting responsible fishing; eliminating single-use plastics; removing controversial food additives and reducing fat and sugar; serving responsibly sourced tea and coffee; and catering to a range of dietary requirements.

Strong headway has been made with many of these targets in the Middle East and Africa with initiatives ranging from partnerships with food banks and local charities to the Group’s ‘Love Food Not Waste’ campaign in 2019 for Planet 21 Day. Towards the same targets, Accor’s food and beverage team are taking steps to replace restaurant buffets with more innovative culinary concepts, while individual hotels are growing their own organic produce.