Food wastage is a global scourge, according to the UN, almost 17% of total food production goes to waste yearly. In India, 68,760,163 metric tonnes of household food waste is generated annually. With global hunger on the rise again, we need to retrace our steps and check where we can improve and practice food waste management efficiently. 

With the same goal in mind, AI is being introduced as a medium to reduce food wastage. We have all heard about AI being included in the F&B industry. Recently ChatGPT was able to predict the 10 best eats in Mumbai, Delhi and so on. It could also mimic human behaviour and use intuition to meet our needs.

Wasteless

Even went to a supermarket and wondered why these pricey items are suddenly priced so low? It’s known as markdown optimization!

While markdown optimization is not feasible when done manually, it’s a challenge that was met head-on by the AI - wasteless. The ideology behind wasteless is simple if something is expiring in 2 days, why should you pay full price for it? The company uses Artificial Intelligence to give retailers dynamic rather than fixed pricing for perishable food products.

Winnow 

This AI system photographs different foodstuffs thrown into a food waste bin, passes the data through an algorithm, and automatically calculates discarded food’s financial and environmental costs. The AI Winnow vision trains itself every time someone puts waste into the bin and after a certain period of time, it can detect the food waste category better than the human eye!

Gamaya

This agri-tech company focuses on sustainable crop production using remote sensing and AI. It makes use of the crop intelligence program to assist farmers and farming businesses and improves the efficiency of production and reduces food wastage.

This Swiss agricultural tech firm uses drones with hyperspectral cameras, which detect changes in water, fertilizer, pests, and crop yields. Impressive, right?!

Consumer demands change dynamically which leads to a transformation and the food and beverage industry. With the demand for fast, affordable and readily available food options, food wastage also rises. To put it in more understandable terms, food waste management could put world hunger to an end. Hence, the inclusion of AI  by innovative startups and tech collaboration might just be the step we need to take!