Member Article

Can data and IoT solve food waste by tracking demand and consumption?

According to recent figures, we waste around 63 billion tons of food every year. That equates to around $218 billion every year in food that is grown, transported and prepared, but is otherwise not eaten.

Such wastage comes from both system losses during food production, as well as losses due to food discarded by consumers. Roger Haenni, CEO and Co-founder of Datum, believes that a system which can better keep track of movement and consumption of goods could help.

Inefficiencies in food waste

Food wastage is considered both an environmental and a social inefficiency. It takes a toll on our environmental resources, such as croplands, space for growing produce and rearing animals for food. While at the same time, there are so many people who struggle to eat healthily, or at all, not only in the developing world, but also in developed economies.

A $100 billion opportunity?

There is a need to address these inefficiencies across the entire food industry. A report from ReFED claims that reducing waste can be a $100 billion economic opportunity - and startups are focusing on everything from improving the “expiry” labels, to enabling tax breaks for participation in food donation programs, to promoting “secondary retailers” that can make products from still-usable produce not used in the primary markets.

Food is not the only product wasted because of inefficiencies. For the most part, this applies to any consumables that have a shelf life or expiry date, such as medicines, ingredients, and other raw materials. There is also potential inefficiency in terms of effort and energy expended in providing services that no one actually acquires — thus the need for studies that optimize the workflow.

In any environment, overproduction can be as harmful as lack of supply. Thus, there is a need to optimize such manufacturing based on demand and consumption patterns.

That’s where Datum believes that a system that can better keep track of movement and consumption of goods can help.

Tracking beverage consumption through smart bottles

Datum has a long term vision involving the marriage between the internet-of-things (IoT) and data management, which is already gaining traction.

It recently forged a partnership with Groking Lab, embedding Datum into the Ozmo Smart Bottle. With this collaboration, the “Datum Enabled” smart bottles will allow users to earn DAT tokens when they share their usage data.

Users can share their intake of water, tea, coffee or other beverages by installing the beta version of Datum. Essentially, the smart bottle can detect water level changes and thus the water consumed by its users.

The smart bottle’s main goal is to help its users achieve their fitness goals through better hydration - this applies whether one is an athlete, a weekend warrior, or even just a casual users who wants to focus on an energetic and fit lifestyle.

Following on from this, by aggregating this data, any company or researcher can also keep track of the demand and consumption patterns across the entire customer base.

For the Ozmo Smart Bottle, this may not directly translate yet to optimizing production, given that Groking Lab produces the bottles and not the content that the users consume. However, extending the application beyond the smart bottle, gives the potential for users to track their consumption of other food items, as well.

The power of data and the ubiquity of sensors

Reducing inventory and optimizing production for a just-in-time or “ad hoc” approach requires more finesse than simply speeding up or slowing down production. But, when businesses have the data they need, acquired directly from the customers, they can make better informed decisions. A significant improvement compared to simply relying on sales and inventory reports, which may have huge lag times and may not accurately reflect the market’s needs.

For the part of customers, there are multiple benefits also. In the case of the Ozmo Smart Bottle, the users are already able to keep track of their consumption patterns, which may help in improving their lifestyles through better hydration. This is only one data point, mind you. If users can also integrate Datum into other aspects of their lifestyle (such as their movements, habits, and other consumption patterns), then they can potentially use analytics solutions that can give a better picture of their lifestyle habits, provide advice on where they can improve, and foster a healthier lifestyle in general.

And, because all data sharing is voluntary and done through the marketplace, there are also potential financial returns. Ozmo Smart Bottle already pays users back with DAT tokens; The more we share, the more we can earn from the platform.

Data is part of our life

The takeaway here is that, in anything we do, data is part and parcel of our lives. Whether at work, at play, or even when we are drinking our favorite beverage, we generate some form of data, in the form of consumption patterns, habits, preferences, and even our locations.

If the Datum and Ozmo data approach can be applied to the food and beverage industry, then companies can optimize exactly how and what to produce, so that the products they deliver to stores (which in turn are purchased by customers) are always fresh. Extend this to the entire food industry and the effect is the same and waste could be significantly reduced.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Jones .