Kitchen Waste Challenge Under the Table / AI Identifies Commonly Discarded Dishes, Han Lai Launches a 'Table-to-Table' Kitchen Revolution

【CNA Reporter Jiang Mingyan, Taipei 12th】Banquets and department store gourmet meals, once mundane daily scenes, will become a structural tsunami of food waste for food and retail giants after 2027 when the policy banning kitchen waste for pig feed takes effect.

Han Lai Gourmet, which operates buffet restaurants like Harbor and Island Language, faces a potential surge in annual kitchen waste processing costs from NT$400,000-500,000 to over NT$10 million. The company decided to 'bring AI into the kitchen,' using waste recognition, inventory management, and waste-to-compost processes to turn a cost black hole into a 'table-to-table' circular chain.

Starting January 1, 2027, Taiwan will completely ban using kitchen waste for pig feed. Han Lai Gourmet's Deputy General Manager of Development, Tsai Hui-chuan, said in an interview that the policy adds another operational challenge, prompting a 'race to manage kitchen waste better.' The company has been preparing for sustainability, using AI recognition, data management, and circular reuse.

Han Lai's Harbor buffet restaurant, banquet halls, and multiple Chinese cuisine brands generated about 1,101 metric tons of kitchen waste in 2025. Previously, centralized collection and transport for pig feed cost only NT$400,000-500,000 annually. After the ban, composting processors will charge NT$8,000-10,000 per ton, potentially raising annual costs to over NT$10 million—a 20-fold increase.

In 2025, Han Lai joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs' 'Greater Southern Smart Rainforest Plan' and selected its Kaohsiung main branch Harbor buffet as a demonstration site, installing three AI systems: an AI voice reservation assistant, customer feature vector recognition, and AI kitchen waste recognition and reduction management.

The most notable is Taiwan's first fully customized AI kitchen waste recognition machine. It uses an overhead camera and a scale below. When staff discard waste, the system records the food type and weight, building a complete leftover database.

Within three months, the Kaohsiung Harbor restaurant reduced kitchen waste by about 1.6 metric tons. Average per-person waste dropped from 140 grams in September 2024 to 52 grams in December, and further to 42 grams by February 2025—a 70% reduction.

'Many companies know they waste, but not where. AI's value is turning invisible problems into data, and through precise preparation, directly reducing ingredient costs and subsequent waste processing fees,' Tsai said.

'Romaine lettuce, yellow bell peppers, and red bell peppers were the top three leftovers when the AI system first launched—vegetables heavily used as decorative garnishes,' said Han Lai's Financial Department Associate Manager, Chang Huai-wen. After analysis, the team adjusted plating and preparation quantities, reducing 'pretty but uneaten' designs.

As the menu changes every two months, the latest waste ranking has become shrimp with cabbage, lamb tendon, and teriyaki sea bream. 'The AI is honest; it doesn't show favoritism. It's clear who gets thrown away the most,' Chang laughed.

Han Lai's AI also uses customer feature vector recognition. Cameras at the entrance and buffet areas, using de-identified edge computing, analyze customer age, gender, and停留熱区 (hot zones). Current data shows about 60% male and 40% female customers, with the core group aged 30-35. The system found male customers prefer Japanese cuisine, seafood, and cooked food in that order, allowing chefs to estimate meat, seafood, and vegetable needs more accurately.

However, the AI waste recognition machine faced challenges. Initial recognition accuracy was only about 70% due to variations in food appearance, lighting, and angles. A classic case was 'the AI mistaking orange salmon for grapefruit.' Han Lai adopted a 'human-machine collaboration' model, where chefs manually select items and archive data when AI fails, while accumulating training data.

Han Lai noted that the waste recognition machine currently focuses on 'buffet counter' leftovers. Since Taiwanese consumers often mix trash and kitchen waste, and food changes shape after eating, 'customer-side' waste recognition remains technically challenging.

Beyond waste and ingredient reduction, Han Lai is promoting resource reuse. It partners with Taiwan Bio-Circular Technology Co. to biodegrade and dry kitchen waste into organic fertilizer, used for trial rice and vegetable farming on about 2.4 hectares of farmland in central and southern Taiwan.

Tsai cited an example: Han Lai collaborates with tomato farmers in Meinong, Kaohsiung, using organic fertilizer from kitchen waste. The resulting tomatoes are then purchased by the group's procurement department for use in its restaurants, forming a 'table-to-table' circular chain.

The circular chain extends to various items. Besides tomatoes and rice from Meinong, Han Lai purchases mangoes from Fangshan, Pingtung, and organic vegetables like komatsuna, tatsoi, Kyoto mizuna, and bok choy from southern organic farmers for its restaurants nationwide. Han Lai reported that in the first five months of 2025, 20 metric tons of kitchen waste were reused, 6 hectares of soil were improved, over 20 farmers benefited, and 4 metric tons of carbon were reduced—'equivalent to planting 400 trees for the Earth.'

'However, a severe shortage of composting capacity is a major challenge,' Tsai said. Qualified composting processors are scarce, and existing capacity is far from meeting national demand. Many new treatment operators are still waiting for clearance permits or factory expansion, creating a supply bottleneck. No single processor can handle Han Lai's annual 1,000 tons of kitchen waste. 'It is estimated that only about 40% to 50% of the kitchen waste from the Kaohsiung Harbor restaurant can be composted next year.'

Cost is also an issue. Han Lai observed that as the 2026 full ban approaches, composting processing fees have surged from about NT$2,500 per ton to NT$8,000 after the African swine fever outbreak. Current contract prices range from NT$3,000 to NT$10,000 per ton, with high market volatility and a lack of standards.

Han Lai also recycles used cooking oil. Pure used cooking oil is sent to Yongrui Industrial for recycling, then to Formosa Plastics to produce urgently needed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Impure oil sludge is used as auxiliary fuel for boilers, achieving a complete waste oil cycle.

Chang said that since launching the recycling program in 2024, 159,625 kg of waste oil was recovered in 2025, with a 90% conversion rate, providing about 127 metric tons of SAF raw material. Impure oil sludge was reprocessed into auxiliary fuel. For example, at the Nangang restaurant, monthly waste oil sludge dropped from 6 to 3 metric tons, convertible to about 1.5 metric tons of auxiliary fuel oil.

Facing the 2027 ban, Tsai said Han Lai will develop a 'second-generation' AI kitchen waste machine that combines recognition and weighing. It plans to install AI waste systems at all 18 of its 'all-you-can-eat' locations, including Harbor and Island Language, by 2030, with a total investment of about NT$10 million and an installation cost of about NT$500,000 per store.

While this is a significant sum, Tsai believes it is more cost-effective than facing annual processing costs of over NT$10 million and environmental pressure. 'Beyond cost, the success of this investment depends on providing incentives, investing in education and training, persuading employees to change habits, and meeting customer needs,' Chang pointed out.

Tsai called on the government to establish comprehensive supporting measures alongside the ban, including subsidies for equipment investment, expanding processing capacity, and establishing clear classification standards. 'Otherwise, early adopters will struggle, and small and medium-sized businesses will find it even harder to bear,' she said.