OneThird's technology enables smarter decisions in the fresh produce supply chain, helping growers, distributors, grocers and shoppers to tackle the $1 trillion annual global food waste problem
ANAHEIM, Calif. and ENSCHEDE, The Netherlands, Oct. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- OneThird, a food tech company created to address the annual loss of one-third of all food produced due to spoilage, today announced plans to exhibit and demo its AI-powered real-time shelf-life technology that helps to prevent produce waste across the entire food supply chain — at the Global Produce and Floral Show 2023, October 19-21 at the Anaheim Convention Center, booth 4621. OneThird predicts the exact shelf life of fresh produce, empowering 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 strawberries, avocados, blueberries and tomatoes, as they have the highest waste levels in the produce supply chain. View a short video about OneThird here.
Customer data collected within the OneThird database over the past four years shows that 80% of the time, the shelf-life of produce is better than the static 'best-by' date, which leads to unnecessarily wasted produce. Very few safeguards, however, are in place to combat food waste across the entire food supply chain, and the shelf life of produce is typically only known in hindsight when it's too late to address. Growers lose millions of dollars in sales when retailers reject produce. Consumers typically act on 'best-by' dates, and retailers miss out on millions in consumer sales when they throw out produce based on static 'best-by' dates vs. the actual quality.
Strawberries, for example, are a beloved fruit. The U.S. produces over one million tons annually — but strawberries are one of the world's most wasted foods. In California — which produces 80% of the strawberries grown in the U.S. — most average strawberries go uneaten. Farm issues cause some of these problems, but spoilage in the supply chain and grocery stores is a huge contributor.
How OneThird Works.
Most produce scanners in the market only provide outputs related to lab-based parameters, such as sugar, acidity and water content. OneThird provides an inclusive system that combines AI in proprietary algorithms with a near-infrared-based scanner to determine the shelf life of fresh produce— making it fast and non-destructive. The cloud-based OneThird dashboard tracks data and provides 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;
- Flexible Best-by Dates: Having 'best-by' dates based on real-time shelf-life and actual quality instead of highly conservative default values;
- Dynamic Pricing: Grocers can apply in-store discounts if produce is near expiration.
"The worst kind of waste is unnecessary waste. A supply-chain wide approach to implementing flexible 'best-by' dates on packaging labels based on real-time shelf-life data will help finally eliminate it," said Marco Snikkers, founder and CEO of OneThird. "Our technology enables produce supply chain stakeholders to eliminate 25% of waste on average – potentially helping to prevent 2.5% of global carbon emissions — and every additional day of produce sales results in 10-20% more margin."
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 as much as 40% of food is wasted in the U.S. Almost half of the globally wasted food – 40% – is fresh produce.
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 Pymwymic, SHIFT Invest and Oost NL. Follow OneThird on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or learn more at https://onethird.io.
Media Contact
Mindy M. Hull, Mercury Global Partners for OneThird, 1 415 889 9977, [email protected], https://www.onethird.io
Michael Held-Hernandez, Mercury Global Partners for OneThird, 1 480 306 1154, [email protected], https://www.onethird.io
SOURCE Mercury Global Partners for OneThird
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