A Tenerife hotel used by easyJet holidays as a pilot project for cutting food waste has seen annual cost savings of more than €100,000.
After 12 months of implementation, the operator confirmed that buffet waste in the restaurant at the Bahia Principe Sunlight Costa Adeje resort has been reduced by 68%.
The food waste was cut by 32 tonnes compared to the previous year, with carbon emissions down by 139 tonnes.
“These results led to cost savings of over €100,000 of food for the hotel for this year, compared to the previous year,” the company said.
The trial was introduced last summer, with food waste management solutions firm Winnow sing AI technology to spot food being wasted in the restaurant kitchen.
The hotel serves up to 2,400 meals per day in busy holiday periods, with buffet waste being a larger component of overall kitchen food waste.
The hotel has seen waste reductions of 71% for rice, 74% for pasta and pizza, 73% for salads and 80% for tomato trimmings.
The results were achieved by making reductions to batches of food cooked in advance, as well as sharing images with kitchen staff to make improvements on techniques for food preparation.
EasyJet holidays now plans a dedicated awareness campaign, to increase the adoption of Winnow AI technology across the hotels it uses.
Webinar content will provide hoteliers with information and support need ahead of implementing the technology.
Chief operating officer Matt Callaghan said: “We’re really pleased with the results of our food waste reduction scheme using the latest artificial intelligence technologies.
“Reducing food waste not only helps lessen a hotel’s environmental impact, but also benefits them financially.
“We want to make a more positive impact on the environment and local communities that make our holidays so special.
“So, drawing on the expertise of University of Oxford students from our sustainable tourism programme, we found that food waste in our sector was of growing environmental and social concern, so, we wanted to find effective measures to tackle the issue.”