At a time when 811 million people go to bed hungry every night, a third of all food produced to eat is wasted or lost.
The United Nations aims to halve global food waste by 2030, and technology solutions have shown promise in supporting that goal.
Food can be lost early in the supply chain, during production and processing, or later, when restaurants, supermarkets and households throw it away. Rampant food waste worsens global hunger.
It exacerbates the climate emergency, too, with an estimated 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions being associated with unconsumed food.
Tap to save surplus food
Around the world, dedicated smartphone apps offer options to re-allocate surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants, and homes – thus saving it, at the tap of a finger, from ending up in the bin.
Founded in Denmark, Too Good to Go allows residents in many cities across Europe and North America to purchase extra food at reduced prices from shops and restaurants.
Yindii in Thailand and Treatsure in Singapore similarly connect consumers with food and beverage outlets that give discounts on excess food at the end of each day. Through OLIO, users in over 100 countries can give away extra food for free to others who want it.
Some apps make sure surplus food goes directly to people in need.
In Tamil Nadu in southern India, No Food Waste collects extra food from businesses, enough to feed up to 10,000 people every month in the city of Tarachi alone, according to one estimate.
In Ireland, the FoodCloud social enterprise app lets food businesses upload information about their stock, alerting charities to collect and distribute any surplus.
Helping at the source
Producers sometimes discard food due to excess output, as well as unexpected crop spoilage. They may also throw out healthy fruits or vegetables that look slightly odd or misshapen. Instock restaurants in The Netherlands serve surplus food sourced from farmers, producers, packaging companies and brokers.
Excess waste also happens due to inefficient supply chains and shoddy post-harvest processes.
Kenya's Twiga Foods logistics platform aims to fix this by linking food outlets with a network of farmers and vendors. In Ghana, the Cheetah app (developed by Ujuizi Laboratories of the Netherlands-based University of Twente) shows farmers, traders and food transporters the best routes to market. More efficient routing can save food from spoiling before it reaches consumers.
The Berlin-based start-up solution Plantix aims to stop good crops from being wasted when a farmer presumes them to be damaged. The so-called "mobile crop doctor" uses image recognition to help farmers diagnose any issues with their crops, thereby preventing edible food from being lost.
AI to analyze waste
Solving the food waste problem ultimately depends on understanding why and how it happens.
US-based Winnow uses computer vision to help commercial kitchens around the world understand how food is being wasted, measuring the amounts discarded using smart sensors attached to waste bins. The app also proposes strategies to prevent waste while saving money.
Wasteless, meanwhile, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to maintain dynamic pricing on items with upcoming expiration dates. The objective is to help supermarkets and online grocery stores in Europe and the US reduce food waste and extend the value of their perishable food items.
Solutions for home use
In some markets, the COVID-19 pandemic has noticeably reshaped people's food spending habits, with items being purchased in larger quantities during lockdowns.
The nosh app, developed by researchers from the UK and India, uses AI to help households track fridge and pantry contents, giving tips on how to cook and eat everything before specified expiry dates.
Based in the UK, Mimica Touch works with packaged food brands to embed a temperature-sensitive indicator tag, which changes texture when items are no longer fresh.
To mark the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, the Permanent Missions of Andorra and San Marino to the United Nations are supporting a UN-led panel discussion on innovating to fight food loss and waste.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will all take part in the WSIS TalkX Virtual event on 30 September. Join the conversation here.
