A new Irish-built system intended to deal with the problem of food waste in Irish hospitals has been officially launched by Positive Carbon.
The company is working with the HSE to bring its Scrappy real-time food waste monitoring to commercial and healthcare kitchens, targeting a food waste bill for Ireland’s healthcare sector that is estimated to be almost €12 million each year.
The system uses advanced AI that detects, categorise, and measure food waste as it occurs. That allows organisations to tracking what is wasted and why, leading to smarter purchasing and production decisions and changing how food waste is managed.
“Scrappy gives chefs visibility they’ve never had before and transforms that insight into real-time action.” said Mark Kirwan, CEO of Positive Carbon. “We’re proud to be working with the HSE and determined to support more hospitals to prevent thousands of euros going into the bin.”
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The HSE joins organisations such as Aramark, Gather and Gather, and Levy Ireland in using the technology, which can lead to significant cost savings and enhance sustainability.
The system is already in place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where it contributed to a 33 per cent reduction in food waste and saved more than €90,000 last year.
“We need the technology to support us; it is frightening to see that we could have lost a further €92,000 if we hadn’t been able to take action,” said Sharon Gallaghar, head of catering at the hospital. “We’ve made huge progress, but this needs to continue if we are to meet our national targets by 2030.”
The potential reduction in food waste from the use of Scrappy is in line with the goals of the HSE Climate Action Strategy 2023 – 2050, which calls for significant emissions and waste reductions across Irish healthcare.
“Reducing food waste is crucial and Positive Carbon’s collaboration with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda proves our healthcare services can achieve impressive economic and sustainability results,” Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll Mac Neill said. “I eagerly anticipate more innovative partnerships like this in the health sector.”
Established by Aisling and Mark Kirwan in 2020, Positive Carbon’s technology has also been used by the Dalata Hotel Group and Radisson Blu.