Food Wastage is a Bigger Environmental Crisis than Climate! And how can AI help solve it?
Possible US Food Waste 2023 Statistics:
45% wasted from Households | 50% wasted from grocery stores, restaurants, food services | 18% agricultural and green house farms | 5% food manufacturers
I am sure we can find more accurate statistics from all data sources available (usda, EPA, fda, feedingamerica, rts, eatpallet, etc…). but the fact we all should be very much concerned about is the amount of food wasted at retail stores, restaurants and homes. At least 40% of the food we buy is ending up in trash and garbage. And while there are multiple solutions and methods being explored and implemented to reduce it , it is not close to scratching the surface of the food wastage.
So what new solution or proposal am I sharing here that can get the attention and interest in solving this problem ? I am primarily targeting reducing wastage at retail and grocery stores which is a step before we buy and shop for food products.The answer could be Artificial intelligence and Biodegradation detection. Let me share my optimistic hypothesis.
AI + BioDegradation Sensor Detection Algorithm
Sequential Flow — Steps
- Biodegradation detection sensors detect the lifecyle of a packaged food via the paper/bag used to package or store the food. Package the food to let the sensors capture the state and life cycle stage of packaged food in a datastore .
- AI based Artificial Intelligence Imagery Scanning scans all types of packaged food and builds training datasets created out of the sensors from Step #1(datastore), the AI engine will generate results and status of the packaged food (rotten or good to consume).
- AI + Biodegradable Detection Sensors eliminates the need to rely on expiration dates as based on the food statistics and research from many of the food recycling organizations and EPA/FDA/USDA, the expiration dates on the packaged food majority of the times lead to trashing the food though the food is still in a consumable state.
- The Food detection system processes the results from Step #3 and retrieves the status of the packaged food and provides accurate status and lifecycle of the packaged food which greatly avoids food being thrown in trash and garbage at households and retail stores.
- Building this entire software program and embedding into a hardware scanner, lets call it as FLC scanner (Food Life Cycle) will empower food corporations, retail stores, food services organizations, food banks to save more packaged and healthy food. Even households can buy a similar scanner and do their part to save food on the planet!
I am optimistic about sharing this idea to EPA/FDA/USDA and research organizations if this can contribute to innovating and solving the crisis to save food. Let me know what you all think about it. Cheers!!
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