With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, an increasing number of companies are beginning to use AI tools to reduce food waste. Recently, Nestlé, a global food giant, participated in a pilot project conducted in the UK. This project aims to effectively "design out" food waste by real-time monitoring and tracking food waste situations.
In the preliminary trial of this AI tool, the edible food waste at one of Nestlé's factories was reduced by 87%. The project is expected to save up to 700 tons of high-quality surplus food, equivalent to 1.5 million meals. Additionally, the pilot is anticipated to avoid approximately 1,400 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save enterprises up to £14 million in operational costs.
Zest, one of the developers of this AI tool, co-founder Alina Sartogo said that all the food waste identified by the AI tool is edible but cannot be profitably sold in the market for various reasons. For example, damaged chocolate bars or products with short shelf lives may fall into the category of waste.
The AI software plans to be promoted in the food supply chain via a subscription model before March next year and will conduct a series of pilot experiments with multiple manufacturers. Recently, the project also received support from Innovate UK, the UK government's innovation agency, which provided matching funds of £1.9 million to promote the development of the AI project.
Esra Kasapoglu, head of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Economy Department at Innovate UK, said that this project aims to change the way food is purchased and distributed in the UK, reducing waste, lowering carbon emissions, and cutting costs. In the UK, about 4.6 million tons of edible food is wasted each year, equivalent to 10 billion meals.
At the same time, Simon Millard, food director of the charity FareShare, said that this technology will have a significant impact on their work of distributing food to over 8,000 charities and community groups.
In this pilot, Sustainable Ventures collaborated with several companies, including Nestlé, Bristol Superlight, a machine learning-based logistics system provider, Howard Tenens Logistics, FuturePlus, a supply chain management system, FareShare, as well as Google Cloud's BigQuery and Vertex AI platforms.
Key points:
1. 🍽️ The AI project in which Nestlé participated is expected to save up to 700 tons of high-quality surplus food, equivalent to 1.5 million meals.
2. 🌍 This project also plans to reduce approximately 1,400 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and help businesses save up to £14 million in costs.
3. 🤝 The promotion of the AI tool will help the charity FareShare distribute more food to communities and institutions, addressing food waste issues.
