Final Event, November 2025

Every Bite Counts, Every Byte Matters  

Tray sensor coding by Aleksi

Join us for our concluding event, where we will reflect on our journey and share key learning experiences at the intersection of food and data. Together, we will explore how digital innovation and collective action can contribute to shaping a more sustainable future.

The program will highlight how technology and collaboration can:

  • Reduce food waste
  • Enhance the dining experience
  • Generate lasting positive impact for both people and the planet

We warmly invite you to be part of this dialogue as we reimagine the role of food and data in driving meaningful and sustainable change.

Event details

For further information, please contact: diningflow@utu.fi

Registration

Tentative Program

12:00 – 12:10 |  Opening and welcoming

12:10 – 12:55 | Keynote speaker:  Prof. Sara Dolnicar,  from University of Queensland, Australia

Talk’s title: Food waste in self-service restaurants – Measuring it, understanding it, reducing it.

Abstract: Looking at food, smelling food, and tasting food is enjoyable. What is not enjoyable is leaving uneaten food behind on the plate at the end of the meal. Not only does generating plate waste not contribute to an enjoyable dining experience, it also substantially burdens the environment. All the resources used to grow food, harvest it, store it, transport it, prepare it are wasted. And when plate waste ends up in landfill, even more carbon emissions are generated. Avoiding plate waste would contribute significantly to the protection of our planet. Importantly, it would do so without reducing the enjoyment of consumers. In this keynote, Sara Dolnicar will report on her research group’s work on measuring plate waste, identifying why consumers take more at self-service meals than they eat and developing and empirically testing in field experiments behaviour change interventions that are effective in reducing plate waste without reducing the dining experience.

12:55 –  1:05  | Keynote speaker: Petra Svahn,  City of Turku, Climate team.

Talk’s title: Together Towards a Climate-Positive Turku. 

1:05 –  1:20 | Lessons Learned from the Dining Flow Journey as a Veturi Project: Dr. Niko Myller  (UTU) and Jere Vuorenala (KONE).

1:20 –  1:50 | Outcomes of Dining Flow project

    • Proof of Concept 1 – Forecasting models, by Dr. Boyang Zhang
    • Proof of Concept 2 – Data visibility in the restaurant kitchen + Decision Making Framework, by Susanna Lehtojärvi
    • Proof of Concept 3 – Diner’s Experience + Diners’s Framework, by Leo Lepistö
    • Idea 1 – Empty food container detection + Kitchen’s Framework, by Ecem Akar Ertem
    • Idea 2 – Smart Trash bin by Maliha Tabassum
    • New collaborations, by Ismail Vohra

1:50 – 2:10 | Coffee Break  

2:10 –  3:00 | Dining Flow innovation camp outcomes & discussion with a jury.

3:00 – 3:50 | Panel discussion Building a Vision to Action to make Every Bite Counts, Every Byte Matters.

Facilitator:  Professor Anu Hopia, NuFo, Faculty of Medicine, UTU

Panelists:

3:50 – 4:00 | Closing

4:00 –  5:oo  | Networking