Illumia News and Press

Scottsdale, Ariz. – December 9, 2025 – Transact + CBORD announced today a strategic partnership with Topanga, integrating CBORD's NetMenu platform with StreamLine, an AI-driven food production tracking and optimization platform. The partnership gives commercial kitchens in higher education, healthcare,  senior living, and corporate catering complete operational visibility—from prep to post-service—preventing overproduction and dramatically reducing waste.

The commercial foodservice industry faces a costly waste problem. In 2023, the U.S. commercial foodservice sector generated $9.8 billion worth of unsold or uneaten food, with the average kitchen spending 7-15% of its annual food budget on discarded food. With volatile ingredient costs and razor-thin margins, this inefficiency directly threatens profitability.

Waste has persisted, in part, because chefs and kitchen managers don’t have accurate data or smarter forecasting tools. Service worksheets are often full of estimated results, and staff won’t use tracking systems that slow them down. More and more of these cumbersome administrative tasks can be handled with AI, increasing team productivity while achieving better results—forecasts, menu plans—using accurate kitchen data.

The integration combines NetMenu's menu planning data with StreamLine's AI-powered smart scales to automatically identify, weigh, and analyze food items throughout production and service. This eliminates the need for manual worksheets and gives culinary teams actionable insights for prep volumes, menu planning, and forecasting.

"When we talk to chefs and dining directors, they tell us the same thing: 'We know waste is killing our margins, but our teams won't use systems that slow them down,'" said Page Schult, Founder & CEO of Topanga. "That's why this partnership matters. NetMenu already sits at the heart of their operations—now we're embedding intelligence right where decisions happen, with zero friction. This isn't just about tracking waste; it's about giving kitchen leaders the clarity to run leaner, smarter operations from day one."

StreamLine's compact smart scales capture production, carryover, and waste data with a single tap, then AI automatically identifies and tags NetMenu menu items. The system frees up hundreds of labor hours annually by eliminating time-consuming manual tracking, providing real-time dashboards and regular reports that surface optimization opportunities.

Kitchens using StreamLine cut food waste by an average of 50% within just 15 weeks. One operation reduced its cost-per-meal by 5% over a single semester, while another saw 2.6 times higher team compliance compared to legacy tracking systems.

"Our clients are being asked to serve more meals with fewer resources, and they're looking for solutions that deliver immediate ROI without disrupting operations," said Chris Setcos, Senior Vice President, Partnerships and M&A at Transact + CBORD. "What excites us about this partnership is that StreamLine doesn't ask kitchens to change their workflow—it makes their existing NetMenu data work harder. We're seeing operations identify six-figure savings opportunities within weeks, not months. That's the kind of transformative impact our customers need right now."

Vanderbilt University: Integration in Action

Vanderbilt Dining deployed the NetMenu and StreamLine integration starting in July 2024, making them an early adopter of the combined solution. Connecting their NetMenu menu information with StreamLine's accurate service results—previously recorded on worksheets, but not trusted by chefs—gave them unprecedented visibility into waste trends and consumption. They've since expanded their StreamLine footprint to seven kitchens on campus.

The results over approximately one year: a 53% reduction in total food waste and an estimated $150,000 in food cost savings. Vanderbilt has recorded over 164,000 pounds of food waste, with approximately 90% attributed to overproduction (vs. trimmings). The integration automatically matches captured food items to NetMenu recipes, ingredients, and costs—revealing specific overproduction problem areas and enabling chefs to make immediate, data-driven adjustments to prep volumes and menu plans

The NetMenu-StreamLine integration is now available to CBORD clients. For more information, visit https://hubs.li/Q03VgkHX0.

 

About Topanga

Topanga is a technology company that helps foodservice kitchens waste less and save more. They're automating the busywork that slows teams down, making it easier to get more done, improve margins, and boost meal quality. Their products, ReusePass (the leading reusable packaging program) and StreamLine (a production optimization platform), are used by 500+ kitchens across the country. For more information, visit www.topanga.io.

About Transact + CBORD

Transact + CBORD, a business unit of Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP), offers a unified suite of payment, commerce, foodservice, campus ID, and security technologies that enable intelligent experiences across education, healthcare, senior living, and business campuses. More than 10,000 essential institutions worldwide rely on Transact + CBORD to strengthen their communities, modernize their systems, and elevate the moments that matter. Transact + CBORD will rebrand to Illumia in March 2026.