A YOUNG Scottish company is playing its part in fighting climate change by offering restaurant owners innovative software to help them put an end to costly food wastage.
Tech firm ePOS Hybrid’s pioneering system can record all food wastage across a whole food outlet, from chefs and waiters, through to general staff.
Using comprehensive stock control and management functionality, ePOS Hybrid’s system automatically tracks the usage of stock and generates an extensive report for managers, which highlights wastage patterns.
This allows them to take the appropriate action to helpsave money and protect the environment. Research earlier this week from Zero Waste Scotland claimed that food waste is a bigger cause of climate change than plastics, with the government body urging people to reduce the amount of food they put in their bins.
Bhas Kalangi, founder of ePOS Hybrid, said: “It’s clear that Scotland’s food waste is a major problem for society and has a terrible impact on the environment.
“Helping to reduce food waste was one of my major considerations when developing our software as the difficulty in easily monitoring this was something that came up time and again from managers during my research.
“It’s simply too hard to track food wastage for many businesses so they end up bulk buying products so they don’t run out duringservice. However, our software enables them to measure the amount of food they’re using in fine detail and therefore tweak their orders accordingly and manage their business more efficiently.”
The research for Zero Waste Scotland found that 456,000 tonnes of food waste was collected in Scotland in 2016, compared to 224,000 tonnes of plastic.
Since being founded in 2016, ePOS Hybrid has grown quickly and now has 28 staff, with plans for further growth through funding rounds while rolling out the system to hospitality businesses across the UK and beyond.
Although it was only officially launched in March, ePOS Hybrid is already generating substantial momentum in key business areas including product development, marketing and sales.
The system, which is Android-based, can automate every aspect of a food and drink outlet’s operation – from stock management to staff training and rotas.
Once adopted by an organisation, it is easy to understand what food products are being consistently wasted from the reports ePOS Hybrid generates, which can be easily shared across the whole team.
Kalangi added: “It’s so simple to add in your food stock levels to our system and it can be easily updated should menus change and other food need to be ordered.
“The information can be accessed anywhere at anytime, so a manager can be on the beach and still in touch with what food is being used and what’s being wasted.”
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