Using smart-bins to measure food waste in hospital foodservices: opportunities for practice change

This rapid review explores the grey literature to describe the types of smart-bin technology used in hospital foodservice settings to measure food waste, identify how they were implemented, and discuss the effects of this technology on financial, environmental, and staffing outcomes. The review was registered with the Open Science Framework network and followed PRISMA reporting guidelines. Four Google Advanced searches were completed, and seven targeted websites were searched for grey literature. ChatGPT was also prompted in two conversations to potentially identify additional targeted websites unknown to the author for searching. Grey literature reporting financial, environmental, or staffing outcomes from the implementation of a smart-bin to measure hospital food waste were eligible. Due to the nature of grey literature, document screening, and review were conducted by a single author, and quality assessment was performed using the Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance (AACODS) checklist. Data were synthesized narratively. Fifteen grey literature records were identified using four different types of smart-bin technology: Leanpath (n = 11), Winnow (n = 2), Orbisk (n = 1), and Scrappy (n = 1). Explicit reasons for smart-bin implementation were rarely described; nonetheless, they were inherently related to food waste reduction. All records described a reduction in food waste (n = 15, 100%), with financial savings reported in seven records (46%), greenhouse gas reductions in four records (25%), and staffing changes in ten records (66%). Targeting overproduction (n = 8, 53%), adjusting purchasing (n = 8, 53%), and menu refinement (n = 4, 26%) were the most frequently used strategies by hospitals to reduce food waste in response to data from their smart-bin technology. This review summarizes the use of smart-bin technology to measure and reduce food waste in hospital foodservices and their outcomes. This research may encourage hospital foodservices to implement smart-bins in practice to measure food waste, identify areas for improvement, and drive action to reduce it.