Food waste is a prominent concern in retail and logistics. Perishable foods and goods go to waste for many reasons, and it’s not always due to a failure on the shipping and handling side of the equation. That said, improving sustainability and lowering waste must start somewhere — and it makes sense to do so as close to the source as possible.
To offer some perspective, 40% of all food in the United States goes uneaten and eventually ends up in landfills across the country. That equates to about 400 pounds of food per person per year, with an annual estimated cost of approximately $218 billion.
There’s no denying that’s an incredible amount of unnecessary waste that we should actively work to reduce in some way. The question then is, how? What can we do to improve efficiency, accuracy and handling of perishable goods to reduce total waste?
IoT’s enhanced automation and control
Many factors contribute to the quality and freshness of goods, particularly perishable foods transported across great distances. The food’s storagde temperature is a huge concern, as is the surrounding or environmental temperature. The length of time it takes for goods to travel from the source to the consumer or buyer is another factor. For any fleet or storage system, the ability to retain the appropriate conditions for ideal storage is yet another element.
The adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) or connected devices can improve all of these systems and applications considerably. The technology offers an unprecedented degree of control and automation.
For example, consider a shipment of poultry meats that must travel across the country. After it’s packaged and stored within the warehouse, the meat must be kept at a specific temperature throughout its journey, ideally remaining frozen at all times. Thus, the freight vehicle or storage unit must be refrigerated. It must then be transported from facility to facility, all while remaining under the appropriate temperatures. Finally, the retailer must handle the shipment properly and keep it cold as it’s moved to store shelves and beyond.
At any point along that supply chain, a drop in temperature could mean contamination for the meat. Therefore, it’s necessary to monitor temperatures and conditions along the entire journey. By outfitting every point of contact for that meat with IoT sensors, real-time monitoring is possible.
More importantly, IoT and real-time data streams allow the necessary parties to take precise action when something goes wrong, further limiting the number of goods damaged or contaminated. With the poultry meat, for instance, real-time notifications could alert a fleet driver and management teams that a vehicle is malfunctioning and not staying refrigerated properly. Drivers then have ample time to transfer the goods to another vehicle or refrigeration system, thus preserving quality and eliminating waste.
The technology can automate additional processes along the chain in addition to transport. Goods sorting is another excellent example in which sensors pick out ripe veggies and fruits suitable for sale. Traditional food sorting systems require human laborers to pick out goods. Automating this process can vastly improve these systems, and this process of automation already exists in the real world. Ocean Insight as well as Lugo Machinery and Innovation’s solution is capable of sorting up to 25 fresh dates per second without any human intervention.
Improving cold chain logistics
With real-time monitoring in place — which is precisely what IoT provides — anyone connected to the system instantly has access to more accurate reporting solutions. By proxy, they also have enhanced controls over the operation, including individual processes.
In the example given above, an established IoT system might allow a supply chain manager, hundreds of miles away, to see that a particular transport vehicle in their fleet is experiencing a temperature drop within their refrigeration unit. Using the same system, the manager can notify the driver, organize an alternative solution or redirect the vehicle to safely secure the cargo — in this case, perishable goods.
Anyone along the supply chain can access these real-time reporting solutions, which can apply to virtually any process or procedure. Temperature and humidity settings can be monitored from the time goods leave a farm up until the moment a consumer plucks them from store shelves.
Perishable foods are just one of the many considerations in cold chain logistics. Various pharmaceuticals and nuanced supplies must remain housed under rigid conditions. With the right IoT solutions in place, the industry can effectively reduce damaged supplies in any capacity.