Lufthansa Group is trialling the ‘Tray Tracker’ an AI-supported system designed to help measure and reduce onboard meal returns. The mobile device was developed by the Lufthansa Group’s Digital Catering Analytics Team in cooperation with zeroG, a Lufthansa Group subsidiary.
The mobile technology scans the meals returned from the onboard catering of flights at the dishwashing line. Artificial intelligence then recognises whether a meal has been partially eaten, completely eaten, or left untouched. The flight route, travel class, and meal concept are also included in the analysis. The insights gained can then be used to enable airlines to optimise portion sizes and meal selections in the future, so they can transport and dispose of less food.
Lufthansa has been using the innovation at its Frankfurt site for almost a year, and the AI element has also recently been used to scan trays at its Munich operations. According to the company, in the future, the Tray Tracker will be used at other Lufthansa Group locations and airlines.
Lufthansa Group also has another machine learning-based project to prevent food waste. The project, named Pendle, was launched by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub in 2024. The initiative uses algorithms that analyse data points such as flight duration, flight route, and previous demand in order to optimise loading. Long-term, the group is aiming to link the two projects.
