MILAN – Technology is now a part of food service at all levels, bringing new solutions to very old problems – an aspect taken into account also by the jury of the Smart Label Host Innovation Award. Interaction with an international clientele, for example, involves translation of the menu into any language. The cleverly-named Smart Label winner Dishcovery sets out to innovate the restaurant sector and “change the culinary experience tourists have abroad,” as Giuliano Vita, CEO & co-founder of the company of the same name explains.
Thanks to a web app “capable of helping restaurants to translate their menus in a professional way, increasing their appeal to foreign tourists, educating them about food and wine excellence and generally having an impact on the whole industry, helping the less digital, family-run concerns who have a greater need to communicate their cuisine and the ingredients they use.”
Technology can also help patisseries and gelaterias that want to innovate and pick up on the latest trends. The Equilibrio–Digital Working System features an interconnected app with one or more wireless weighing scales and one or more machines for processing food products.
As engineer Stefano Bravo of Bravo S.p.a. explains: “the app gives access to various recipes by master chefs to create your own digital recipe book. The patented smart scale can guide anyone through the process of preparing the various recipes but is also a kind of management system to move stock in and out of the warehouse, monitor stock levels, keep production costs under control, make the most of the stock you and do other things besides. To obtain a complete work system it is enough to connect up the app, the smart scale and the machine using the specially devised wi-fi technology.”
Another big theme is that of waste in the kitchen. And that involves managing food scraps, especially in our ever longer, ever hotter summers, and the problems that brings with it in terms of hygiene and of the containers used to store waste before it is disposed of Ecodyger Srl Società Benefit, another Green Smart Label winner, has a solution.
“Ecodyger reduces waste by up to 90% – at source, before it even becomes waste, creating a dry, solid component that is also an actual resource. In this sense it is at the very top end of the waste management chain because it focuses on prevention and on preparation for re-use,” says marketing manager Claudio Merazzi.
He goes on: “our company is one of 200 so-called Benefit Corporations in Italy: companies that voluntarily apply strict social and environmental standards. Behind Ecodyger lies a desire to change the status quo, improving and simplifying the lives of establishment owners and consumers, in full compliance with new laws being introduced to favour the circular economy and reduce environmental impact.”
