Introducing Winnow Foresight: a new way to prevent food waste and improve guest satisfaction with AI-powered forecasting

Know how much food to prepare every service, with forecasts that are 2x more accurate than your best chef's instinct.

Winnow launches Winnow Foresight, an AI-powered forecasting tool that tells chefs how much food they need to prepare for every service. It builds daily production plans from guest occupancy numbers and waste data, so chefs can prepare the right amount from the start. The tool runs on any mobile device, with no extra hardware to install, and forecasts at the level of individual food items.

Winnow Foresight was co-developed with Hilton's chefs and designed specifically for focused-service hotels and properties with lighter food and beverage operations, a segment that has historically had less access to advanced food waste technology than larger, full-service properties.

"For years, Winnow has helped kitchens measure the food they waste. Foresight goes a step further and helps them see it coming. Working with Hilton's chefs, we've built a tool that predicts demand at the item level, so teams can prepare the right amount of food from the start. That's the difference between managing waste and preventing it."

Marc Zornes

CEO|Winnow

What you get with Winnow Foresight

- Item-level production plans, so chefs know exactly how much of each item to prepare.

- Forecasts 2x more accurate than instinct, so kitchens cut overproduction without running out of food.

- A better guest experience, by learning about consumption patterns and minimising stockouts.

- Tighter cost control, with precise quantities to produce and order against.

- Mobile-first interface to free chefs from the back office and focus on cooking.

- Enterprise-wide reporting, so multi-property groups can see performance and adoption across every hotel from one place.

The question before every service

Every kitchen faces the same question before service: how much do we need to prepare?

Produce too much, and the food, the money and the hours of labour go in the bin. Up to 20% of everything a commercial kitchen buys is wasted, and overproduction is a fundamental cause of it.

Produce too little, and the buffet looks thin and the item a guest came down for has gone. Choice narrows, satisfaction drops, and it shows up in reviews.

Both calls come down to the same thing: a chef's experience, and a feeling about the day ahead. No chef wants to be the one who runs out mid-service, so kitchens overproduce.

"Production planning was more or less based on experience and sometimes gut feeling, and not driven by data-based facts. There is always a tricky part, between having prepared too much and then you have a lot of leftovers, and not preparing enough and the customer says we ran out of food."

Ademir Husagic

Regional Chef, Continental Europe & Executive Chef|Hilton Vienna Park

A forecast, not a guess

Winnow Foresight provides forecasts that are 2x more accurate than your best chef's instinct, and production plans are given at the item level. "Prepare for 500 covers" is a number to worry about. A plan with specific quantities is one a chef can act on.

"Before, we said, 'We're planning for 300 or 500 breakfasts,' and the team decided how much to prepare. Now, we plan with precision - 20 kilos of scrambled eggs, 25 trays of bacon."

Manfred Breur

Executive Chef|Hilton Frankfurt Airport

 How Winnow Foresight works

1. Get your production plan. Winnow's AI builds your production plan from occupancy numbers and leftover data from past services. Chefs can adjust any number in the forecast before it's printed or shared. Anyone on shift can use the plan.

2. Record what's left. Photograph the leftovers at the end of service with our Snap & Go function. Our AI captures the weight automatically, so nothing needs manual weighing or typing.

That data improves the next forecast, so the plan gets sharper every service. The whole process takes 10 to 15 minutes a day: roughly five minutes to plan, ten to record. It doesn't have to be the head chef running this process, so junior team members can run the plan with confidence.

Snap & Go: record leftovers with a quick photo

Recording leftovers has never been so simple. It used to mean manually weighing food at the end of a shift. Winnow Foresight’s Snap & Go feature replaces all of that with a quick photo. A chef takes a photo of each item left at the end of every service and our AI automatically records the weight. That data automatically updates the next day's forecast and feeds the site's reporting.

Results

Winnow Foresight is already in use across 15 countries, with more than 14,000 production plans built. Some examples:

Hilton London Croydon reduced leftovers by 52% within five months, including a 57% reduction in leftover sausage and a 48% reduction in leftover scrambled eggs, freeing up chefs' time to focus on food quality rather than managing surplus.

Aloft Shanghai Hongqiao cut breakfast food waste per cover by 67% within two months, including an 83% reduction in leftover fried noodles and a 78% reduction in Chinese cabbage, while lowering breakfast food costs.

Less waste and a better guest experience

That isn't a trade-off. When a kitchen prepares closer to real demand, food is fresher, dish rotation is more frequent and service runs smoother. At Hilton London Croydon, smaller batches kept the buffet fresh from first service to last, and in February 2026 the hotel recorded the number one Hilton breakfast score in the UK.

Getting started

Winnow Foresight is available now, standalone or as an add-on for kitchens already running Winnow Vision.

Want to see how it could work in your kitchen? Get in touch and we'll get you started on your journey towards reduced food waste and improved guest satisfaction.