Combating food waste with scanners

Combating food waste with scanners

Cases

One-third of the food we produce each year does not reach the consumers’ plates. This is partly due to a lack of accurate information about the shelf life of fresh produce. Foodtech company OneThird can use its optical technology to “see” how long fruits and vegetables will keep. 

Getting fresh produce from the grower to the retailer on time requires complex logistics. Especially since the quality varies during the season and due to environmental factors such as the weather. Parties in the chain can ‘look’ inside fruit and vegetables with OneThird’s scanner technology and thus gain insight into the internal quality. Artificial Intelligence is used to accurately determine the quality of the products by combining that data with camera images from the outside and other relevant data. This provides valuable information on shelf life, taste and ripeness. 

Food chain

“Quality inspectors can quickly gain insight into the shelf life of avocados and strawberries, for example, with our predictive technology”, explains OneThird founder Marco Snikkers to Oost NL. “The various parties in the food chain can make better decisions about where to transport which products at what price with accurate real-time information about product quality. Because of this, less food is wasted before it reaches the consumer.”

1.5 million euros 

OneThird raised 1.5 million euros in funding last month in a round led by investment company SHIFT Invest and Oost NL. This investment allows OneThird to extend the technology to additional types of fruits and vegetables so that it can offer a complete solution. The company is also expanding its technical team by taking over Impact Analytics, an expert in image analysis. OneThird is located at Kennispark Twente.