Challenge
Reduce Food Waste in Perishable Products in Retail
By tracking and specifically marketing items in the market that are close to expiration, stores can help reduce food waste. Additionally, laws prevent donations of expired food, even though many expiration dates are extremely early for certain preserved products. Figuring out how to make these products more appealing before expiration, and how to not let the food go to waste should it actually expire, could help the economy, eliminate hunger, and reduce wastefulness which is effecting our environment.
FoodLoop has developed an application in the form of a networked software solution for the food retail industry and the consumer. The tool consists of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) extension on the one side, and consumer-based applications on the other. Foodstuffs with a short remaining shelf life are marketed through real-time offers to consumers’ phones, and contrary to the usual practice, do not end up in the bin.