Brief:
startups are trying to solve the food waste problem in different manners:
- preventing food waste: consumption forecast,
- monitoring food freshness by tracking inventory data and using visual and gas sensors,
- re-purposing ugly foods,
- using food waste as resources to make sustainable products.
AI visual quality inspection
How we human know that a food is fresh, we use sight, smell and touch. Now computer vision can do that, dedicated libraries like OpenCV allow programmers to collect images data and execute algorithms or tasks depending on the images, like knowing if a tomato is green, red or yellow. ONETHIRD use AI cameras and imaging models based on spectral data (colors for many maturity levels) to provide smart quality inspection and determine what the expected shelf life is.
On the 1 June 2021, EIT food published a post announcing ONE THIRD as one of RisingFoodStars new members, which give them access to scaling-up, internationalization and investments.
Gas sensor
We all know the rotten bananas, they are fresh when you buy them, but ripening too fast and they end up thrown in trash, it's food waste and this may happen in the whole supply chain. STRELLA BIOTECH is a sensor technology startup that can predict the maturity of produce and help reduce food waste. They developed an ethylene gas detector with a LoRa system which is a wireless platform of internet of things to collect data in storage rooms. The solution is intended for packers, importers and retailers. On the 10 June 2021, GS1 US published an article announcing strella biotech as the winner of GS1 connect startup lab pitch competition with a prize of 10,000USD.
Knowing the demand in advance
Businesses do not know the future demand, so they over produce and here a forecast can help. KNOWASTE is a startup developing a digital food management system intended for caterers in the education sector: UK schools, colleges and universities.
The idea is simple, diners use KNOWASTE to pick their food for the week, so caterers know the kind and the number of meals to prepare. On the 17 June 2021 the university of Bristol published a press release announcing KNOWASTE as one of the winners in runway entrepreneurship competition with 10,000 GBP prize.
Saved food
Sometimes we find that fruits and vegetables in the supermarket are not fresh so we do not buy them, sometimes we do not find them even. It's never easy for the supermarket department manager, it's complicated and a software based on predictive modeling would be welcomed.
INVISIBLE FOODS is pushing the concept to the whole food supply chain, they aggregate and predict food loss, support companies in creating new up-cycled products, and reward efforts to reduce food waste with a data-driven certificate. This is not an easy project because of the size of the supply chain:
- farmer,
- distributor,
- processing,
- packaging,
- transport & export,
- wholesale & import,
Normally all those actors would be guided by their finance report to reduce losses, but with climate change and sustainability requirements, there is a shift in priorities and INVISIBLE FOODS can help.
On the 8 july 2021, impactCity published a post announcing INVISIBLE FOODS as the winner of the Hague innovators challenge Pre-startup 10,000EUR prize.
INVISIBLE FOODS, STRELLA BIOTECH and ONETHIRD wants to solve the same problem, but when the first aggregate data the second detect signals using a proprietary intellectual property and the third use spectral data.
ugly food
in supermarkets manager are required to maintain a good looking vegetable shelf, this reasonable for branding reasons, not all customers are sensitive to sustainability matters, for them good looking food is a healthy food.
What to do with ugly foods?
One of the 2021 GROW IMPACT ACCELERATOR cohort 2 members is ANINA CULINARY ART, they are developing beautiful ready to cook meals using ugly produce in the food industry.
PEKO, a NEXT CANADA 2021 NEXT 36 cohort member developed a shopify store offering PEKO PRODUCE BOX, a box containing a variety of oddly shaped and slightly discolored fruits and vegetables for up to 40% cheaper than market prices.
Home fridge food tracking
in homes level waste exist, most busy working people do their grocery shopping the weekend and generally speaking we realize that some of perishable food we bought last Sunday expired on Friday. In companies there is a stock and inventory manager who is in charge of this, how to help families reduce food waste?
One of northwestern state university of Louisiana 2021 INFERNO PITCH winners is EXPITEMP, an idea for a device intended to help busy families track food in their fridge, cut down on food waste and save time at the grocery store.
Wrap
On the 10 November 2021 RABOBANK AGTECH ACCELERATOR published an article announcing GREAT WRAP as the winner of FOODBYTES consumer packaged goods award, it's a compostable cling wrap, pallet wrap and rolls catering wrap derived from food waste.
According to their website, the wraps takes less than 180 days to break down into carbon and water in a composte pile.
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