CloudEats’ Recipe for Success

Resource Efficiency and Circularity in Food Service

In Numbers

 

• new inventory items used in at least 5 different SKUs
• each ingredient used in 27 dishes on average
• at least 20% of menu to be plant-based
• first plastic-free kitchen this 2023
• 70% recyclable packaging
• transitioning to 100% recyclable packaging

Details

 

Leading the digitization of food service in Southeast Asia, CloudEats leverages its network of cloud kitchens to gain efficiencies that allow them to focus on profit while championing sustainability in their operations. The company purposefully takes an end-to-end approach to realize compounding efficiencies, consequently allowing them to minimize food waste and their environmental impact. Chef Carlo, CloudEats’ culinary director, has been at the forefront of this initiative by ushering the company’s different departments towards creating a sustainable and circular food system. From product development to production and marketing, the company is deliberate in minimizing their food waste and featuring carefully crafted dishes.

Product Development

Operating on a business model that is centered around efficiency, CloudEats develops new dishes around a core guiding principle to maximize ingredients, production space, and capacity. For the Product Development team, this translates to incorporating existing ingredients and sub-recipes in new dishes or menu items. At CloudEats, introducing a new ingredient in their inventory items means using it in at least 5 different SKUs for greater procurement and storage efficiency. The company is now able to use each ingredient in 27 dishes on average. This allows the team to drive cost down while simplifying the optimization of ingredient use to minimize food waste.

Uniquely, CloudEats is able to gain further efficiencies by handling multiple food brands in their portfolio — this allows them to reach larger customer bases by having a single dish present in 4 to 5 different brands. As a result of being stringent with ingredients in their inventory, the Product Development team is encouraged to exercise creativity when designing dishes for these various brands. This not only helps to reduce waste by maximizing the use of each ingredient, but also leads to new and exciting culinary experiences for customers. Whether it's by reducing waste or discovering new ingredient combinations, the potential for improvement is always present.

Recognizing the major role that livestock plays in agriculture land use, CloudEats also moves towards championing plant-based food and pushing its adoption. Soon, the company wants 20% of its entire menu to be plant-based, and they plan to increase this percentage as acceptance grows. Recipe development also focuses on highlighting vegetables without the need for plant-based meat alternatives. While the cost of plant-based alternatives can be high, Chef Carlo believes that the shift towards plant-based food has to happen in the next 5 years.

Inventory Management

At CloudEats, a push system is used for inventory control where forecasts are studied daily and the corresponding ingredients are pushed into the different cloud kitchens. Through this system, inventory takes into account a few weeks’ worth of consumption and can also give supply lifts for food items that are put on promotion. Additionally, yield of these ingredients are being logged by their central kitchen daily through a semi-automated process, which the company is transitioning towards full automation. CloudEats utilizes this data to inform its inventory control and design for minimizing food waste. For example, they use leftover salmon trimmings to make salmon patties!

Plastic Waste

The company looks to operate sustainably in all aspects of our business, including food packaging. Currently, their food packaging includes a mix of plastic and paper, such as cornstarch utensils and compostable containers made of sugarcane. Although only around 70% of their sugarcane packaging is currently recyclable, the ultimate goal is to make packaging 100% recyclable. However, it's not just the packaging that goes from the kitchen to the consumer that they are looking to improve. CloudEats is taking a closer look at their internal packaging, with a goal of reducing their overall carbon footprint. To do this, they plan to pilot their first plastic-free kitchen by Q2 2023. This kitchen will be completely plastic-free, with all containers being owned by the kitchen to restock from the commissary. The challenge will be to minimize the carbon footprint while decreasing delivery and increasing sustainability — a challenge that Chef Carlo and his team are definitely up for.