Champion Industries, manufacturer of a full line of premier commercial warewashing systems, has been announced as a recipient of the National Restaurant Association’s 2015 Kitchen Innovations (KI) Award for the Champion Foodwaste Reduction System. This system is designed for collecting, processing and diverting commercial food waste. The 2015 KI Awards honor equipment and technologies that increase productivity for back of the house operations and benefit restaurant operators.

The Foodwaste Reduction System is fully customizable, designed to meet the unique needs of any facility from restaurants to hospitals, schools and other institutions. This system can process all organics including: produce, fruits, cut flowers, meat, fat trimmings, paper napkins, coffee grounds, spoiled milk, deli products and some soft plastics reducing organic waste volume by as much as 95 percent.

The system transports waste from the Bi-Line conveyor trough into the counter-rotating, low-noise Slow Speed Grinder (SSG). The SSG can process up to 1,250 pounds of commercial food waste per hour. After passing through the SSG, macerated solids are transported via a 3-4 HP pump through an overhead gravity feed to a centrifugal waste dewatering system. Once the waste has passed through the centrifuge it drops into the Phoenix dehydrator. The Phoenix converts the remaining moisture to steam producing a dried, sterile biomass soil amendment that is easily collected and diverted from the facility.

The Foodwaste Reduction System’s modular design allows the centrifuge and Phoenix dehydrator elements to be located remotely. The system offers total odor control while reducing ventilation requirements and guarantees no pathogen, biohazard or harmful emissions keeping the facility, staff and environment safe.

“We are honored to be named one of this year¹s National Restaurant Association Kitchen Innovation Award Winners, this recognition acknowledges our commitment to provide foodservice operators with simple, cost-effective, energy saving and performance enhancing dishroom solutions,” said Will Means, vice president of sales and marketing for Champion and Bi-Line Conveyor Systems.

The 2015 KI Award recipients reflect the trends and topics most important to foodservice operators today. “The products receiving the 2015 Kitchen Innovations Award all offer significant advancement in back-of-house operations and demonstrate the extent to which the manufacturing companies are in touch with culinary and key operator challenges,” says John C. Metz, convention chair for NRA Show 2015.