AI-powered technology helps growers, distributors and grocers tackle the $1 trillion annual global food waste problem by empowering them with reliable shelf life prediction data of fresh produce; consumers buy the freshest produce possible as a result
NEW YORK and ENSCHEDE, The Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- OneThird, a food tech company created to address the annual loss of one-third of all food produced due to spoilage, announced the release of technology that will prevent food waste of produce across the supply chain and from consumers. By predicting the shelf life of fresh produce, OneThird empowers growers, food distributors, grocers and grocery store shoppers to make smarter decisions on how to use produce and minimize food waste. OneThird's technology currently supports and predicts the shelf life of tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and avocados, and will extend to a total of ten types of produce, including grapes, bananas, mangoes, and raspberries by late 2023. View a short video about OneThird here.
OneThird will attend NRF 2023 from January 15 to 17, 2023, and is meeting with press for interviews or demos of its technology.
The United Nations identifies food waste as a major sustainability development challenge. Up to one third of the food brought to market annually is wasted at an estimated cost of $1 trillion dollars, and almost half of it – 40% – is fresh produce. Produce has a varying shelf life, and even though it can spoil within several days, it is often transported over great distances before reaching its destination. OneThird calculated that its technology enables stakeholders to eliminate 25% of waste on average – potentially preventing billions of dollars in costs and more than 1.6 trillion gallons of water in the U.S. alone.
Produce scanners currently in the market only provide outputs related to lab-based parameters, such as sugar, acidity and water content. The shelf life of produce is typically only known in hindsight when it's too late to address, and very few safeguards are in place to combat food waste across the entire food supply chain. OneThird's technology is easy to use and works across multiple touchpoints in the fresh produce supply chain:
- Growers: Receive real-time feedback on growing conditions and can give objective quality guarantees to retailers, resulting in premium prices;
- Distributors: Gain insights they can use for dynamic routing to various retailers or to redirect to processing facilities or food banks;
- Grocers: Have real-time shelf life information that allows them to dynamically price produce and only remove from shelves when needed;
- Consumers: Buy the freshest produce possible and be aware of the remaining time to consume it.
OneThird provides an inclusive system that combines AI in the form of proprietary algorithms with a near-infrared-based scanner — which makes it non-destructive and fast — to determine the shelf life of produce. Data is tracked via the cloud-based OneThird dashboard that provides data and insights. Knowing the shelf life of produce in real-time enables stakeholders across the food supply chain to make immediate and dynamic decisions regarding the shipment and sale of produce, including:
- Dynamic Routing: How to route the produce based on its shelf life and customer specifications;
- Where to Sell: Repurpose to food banks or processing (sauces, freeze drying) instead of having the produce rejected by customers due to short shelf life;
- Expiration or Best Before Dates: Have best before dates based on actual shelf life instead of conservative default values;
- Dynamic Pricing: Grocers can apply a discount in-store if produce is near expiration.
"The astronomical volume of food that goes to waste each year is heartbreaking, particularly since so much is wasted in affluent countries. We've worked hard to create technology that helps to address this persistent, global challenge which directly impacts food scarcity," said Marco Snikkers, CEO and founder of OneThird. "We are proud to have built the first product that accurately and objectively predicts the shelf life of fresh produce. The interest has been overwhelming and we aim to accelerate the deployment of our technology globally."
About OneThird
OneThird is on a mission to address a $1 trillion annual problem — reducing the loss of one-third of all food produced worldwide. OneThird's food tech solutions for growers, distributors and grocery retailers allow for high-accuracy shelf life prediction of produce at any stage of the supply chain — ensuring the right product gets to the right place at the right time. Using passion and creativity, OneThird delivers meaningful solutions to improve sustainability efforts, feed those in need, and save customers money.
Founded in 2019 in a digital incubator for FTSE 100 company Halma plc [LON:HLMA], and based in Enschede, The Netherlands, OneThird is a privately held company backed by impact investors SHIFT Invest and Oost NL. Follow OneThird on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or learn more at https://onethird.io. Access the OneThird press kit here.
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Media Contact
Mindy M. Hull, Mercury Global Partners for OneThird, 1 415 889 9977, [email protected]
Michael Held-Hernandez, Mercury Global Partners for OneThird, 480 306 1154, [email protected]
SOURCE OneThird
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