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Smart food waste monitor wins Feike Sijbesma Sustainable Innovation Award 2023
Orbisk’s automatic food waste monitor has won the Feike Sijbesma Sustainable Innovation Award. The award-winning business developed technology that monitors the waste in professional kitchens. An AI camera identifies the weight and type of food that is discarded. The entrepreneurs have won a sum of € 25.000.
The Feike Sijbesma Innovation Award was presented during the annual event for start-ups and multinationals in the agrifood innovations domain F&A Next on 24 May. The award is conferred upon a budding business that takes on a significant challenge to make our food system more sustainable. According to the jury, Orbsik has taken in a major challenge in focusing on food waste. They applauded the simplicity of the solution the business offers: monitoring what type of food is wasted. ‘There are significant opportunities in this area’, says jury member and Executive Director van het Next Food Collective, Marian Geluk.
Smart camera provides insight
One-third of all food produced is wasted, says Orbisk. To provide professional kitchens with insight into what types of food are wasted, the company developed Orbi, an AI-driven camera that can be installed above the waste bin. The smart monitor registers what type of food, and how much of it, is discarded and at what time during the day. That information is presented through a dashboard, which enables restaurant professionals to optimise their business. After all, food waste is also a financial loss.
Orbisk received the award not just because their technology has proven to be effective. ‘This business focuses on a key aspect in the fight against food waste, which is behavioural change’, the jury report states.
The Sustainable Innovation Award
‘I hope these innovations will boost change’, says Fijke Sijbesma, former DSM CEO, during the presentation of the award. The Sustainable Innovation Award was created to meet global sustainability challenges in our food system. The award focuses on businesses that can potentially impact the largest number of people possible. It is an international award for spin-offs, start-ups, and internal start-ups of established businesses. So long as the business has been established for less than seven years. University Fund Wageningen, Wageningen University & Research, is responsible for the organisation.
Ekolive won the first edition of the Feike Sijbesma Innovation Award in 2022 with a biotechnological solution to enrich depleted soil. Their technology contributed to achieving 11 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a key criterium for the award.