Using AI, IoT to deliver fresh food, cut wastage

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Almost every known large industry today produces and distributes goods at scale over a supply chain. In a typical supply chain, as a product travels across the network of supply chain nodes–from the producer, to the intermediate nodes (e.g pre-processor, distributor etc.), all the way to the end consumer–each node adds ‘value’ to the product until it is ready to be sold off at the final node (e.g. retail stores).

Supply chains are customarily designed and operated to minimise costs or maximise profits (or both). One of the most important considerations is to decide ‘when’ and ‘how’ much to replenish each product at each node of the supply chain, as it proceeds from production to consumption. While this customary approach works well for products that ‘do not perish’ or have an unlimited shelf life, a straightforward extension of this approach for perishable products (e.g. fresh produce) will likely lead to significant food waste.

According to United Nation’s FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year (approximately 1.3 billion tons) gets lost or wasted. A big percentage of perishables is wasted because it degrades in quality and becomes unacceptably spoilt before consumption at retail stores. At the same time, the demand for perishable food produce is on the rise. Today’s consumers are better informed and are influenced by marketing campaigns that recommend nutritious and fresh food products. Data indicates that consumers are fast switching to fresher options and shying away from pre-processed packaged food.

Yet, most retailers are grappling with the challenge of consistently providing fresh food to the customers while still making a profit. Freshness is clearly on the agenda for major retailers: Walmart’s recent program about a 100 percent money-back on unacceptable quality of fresh fruits and vegetables is a case in point.

In the case of fresh produce, the perishability clock starts ticking the moment the produce is harvested in the farm. The ‘freshness’ of this produce is measured by the so-called ‘Remaining Shelf Life’ (RSL) metric. The RSL is the highest right after harvest and decreases as the produce travels across the supply chain. The higher the post-harvest time-delay, the lower the RSL is at consumption. Another crucial factor that affects freshness is the post-harvest temperature and humidity levels that the food is exposed to. Higher the temperature/humidity, the lower is the RSL. It must be mentioned that, while the degradation rate is, in general, different for different kinds of food, post-harvest time-delay and temperature/humidity conditions are known to be the most crucial factors that affect the freshness of all kinds of perishable food.

Thus, an ideal supply chain strategy would ensure that (a) fresh produce reaches the stores (and ultimately the end consumers) fast (i.e. before the RSL runs out) while ensuring that the food (b) is maintained at the optimal temperature/humidity throughout its supply chain journey.

The success of such a strategy can be largely enhanced by using emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things and blockchain.

While the above list of technology enablers is not exhaustive, integrating these into the food supply chain strategy could potentially (i) improve the quality and freshness of the delivered perishable food and will (ii) reduce food waste.

The writers are senior researchers at IBM India.