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1. Eco-friendly packaging
Food-tech startups around the world are looking for cheap, sustainable alternatives to plastic. For example, France's Lactips developed biodegradable casein packaging, while England's Notpla developed edible seaweed drink cups. An effective solution is offered by startups Muse from Turkey and Singapore's barePack - a subscription to reusable containers for restaurants and companies that specialize in food delivery - and have already signed contracts with the largest service providers.2. Reducing food waste
According to UN estimates, every year a third of all food produced and sold ends up in landfill. This is about 100 tons of products per year. At the same time, the number of hungry people in the world has reached 1 billion people.Where does food waste come from? Some of the products become unusable even at the stage of transportation: vegetables and fruits deteriorate due to violation of storage conditions. An even larger proportion of food goes to the trash heap due to imperfect processing methods. In addition, restaurants throw away surplus cooked food every day.
Now startups are appearing on the market that are trying to reduce the amount of waste at each stage. For example, American Apeel Sciences and Hazel Technologies create solutions that help keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer during transportation.
Artificial intelligence already allows to reduce the amount of waste at the production stage. LeanPath from the United States invented a waste management system for restaurants that collects and analyzes data on kitchen performance and provides suggestions for improving food handling practices.
Also, there are many solutions for the distribution of surplus food in public catering, they are mainly organized according to the principle of social networks. For example, using the Leloca (New York) app, restaurants can post at the end of their shift announcements of available meals with discounts ranging from 30 to 50%, and the LeftoverSwap platform (USA) also connects those who have food with those who have it. ready to pick up promptly. Apps like Plan Zheroes from the UK or Zero Percent from Chicago allow restaurants to hassle free to donate surplus food to charities, thereby reducing waste.
3. Traceability of food
The trend towards a healthy lifestyle encourages consumers to pay more attention to the quality of products. On the other hand, restaurants are also interested in product traceability in order to predict the quality and quantity of deliveries.The latest solutions use all possible technologies: from IoT and blockchain to machine learning. France-based platform Connecting Food, for example, offers a blockchain-based solution for digital auditing of shipments, while Philadelphia-based startup Strella Biotechnology monitors fruit freshness using IoT biosensors.
New York-based Ripe.io uses machine learning to aggregate product movement data and present it in the form of a dashboard. And the key feature of the tracking solution from Nexyst 360 (UK) is the NexBox container, which not only tracks the cargo, but also provides the necessary conditions for transportation.
4. Robotization of production
Robots in the kitchen are no longer fantasy. In countries where labor is expensive, for example in Sweden or Denmark, robots are becoming the most profitable solution for a dark kitchen.Today, robotization in food tech is booming: the number of robots involved in the food industry in Europe has exceeded 30 thousand. And this is logical: robots can function in difficult conditions, such as heat, humidity or cold, and at the same time maintain a stable speed.
In addition, thanks to advances in technology, robots have already learned how to cut vegetables or roll out dough. For example, San Francisco's Chef Robotics makes restaurant chefs, and California's Miso Robotics makes a robot that is designed to turn burgers and make pizza. The US startup Dishcraft decided to entrust robots with the dirtiest work and develops dishwashing machines. French 6D Bytes uses artificial intelligence to mix cocktails, and San Francisco-based Starship Electronics has set up a fleet of courier robots.
5.Big data
Big data is already widely used in food tech - from product traceability services to food sharing applications. For example, Walmart monitors the status of shipments using the analytical tool Eden Technologies (New York), which allows you to decide whether to shorten the delivery path depending on the status of the batch.Big data services are also used to identify demand trends: McDonalds uses data for decision-making.
In addition, startups are emerging that are deeply exploring the demand for food: identifying the reasons for user trends in food, like the American Tastewise, and also predicting trends in food demand, like the German Spoonshot.