ENSCHEDE, THE NETHERLANDS – OneThird, a food tech company created to address the annual loss of one-third of all food produced due to spoilage, announced the release of technology that will allow growers, food distributors, grocers and grocery store shoppers to predict the shelf life of fresh produce and minimize food waste. OneThird’s technology currently supports and predicts the shelf life of tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries and avocados, and will extend to a total of ten types of produce, including grapes, bananas, mangoes and raspberries by late 2023. CES 2023 Innovation Award honoree OneThird will showcase its technology at CES Unveiled Las Vegas on January 3, 2023, and at CES 2023 from January 5 – 8, 2023, at the Venetian Expo, Eureka Park, Hall G, Booth 62100. View a short video about OneThird here.
Premiering at CES 2023, OneThird will feature a “ripeness checker” designed for use by grocery store shoppers, that allows them to quickly scan an avocado and get accurate information about when it is ready for consumption. The OneThird Ripeness Checker avoids the need for customers to test the avocado by squeezing it, which damages the avocado.
The United Nations identifies food waste as a major sustainability development challenge. Up to one-third of the food brought to market annually is wasted at an estimated cost of $1 trillion dollars, and almost half of it – 40% – is fresh produce. Produce has a varying shelf life, can spoil within several days and is tough to safeguard. At the same time, fresh produce is an invaluable part of a healthy diet that provides necessary nutrients that support longevity.
Produce scanners currently in the market only provide outputs related to lab-based parameters, such as sugar, acidity and water content. The shelf life of produce is typically only known in hindsight when it’s too late to address, and very few safeguards are in place to combat food waste across the entire food supply chain. OneThird’s technology is easy to use, enables stakeholder to eliminate 25% of waste on average, and works across multiple touchpoints in the fresh produce supply chain:
- Growers: Receive real-time feedback on growing conditions and can give objective quality guarantees to retailers, resulting in premium prices;
- Distributors: Gain insights they can use for dynamic routing to various retailers or to redirect to processing facilities or food banks;
- Grocers: Have real-time shelf life information that allows them to dynamically price produce and only remove from shelves when needed;
- Consumers: Buy the freshest produce possible and be aware of the remaining time to consume it.
OneThird provides an inclusive system that combines AI in the form of proprietary algorithms with a near-infrared-based scanner — which makes it non-destructive and fast — to determine the shelf life of produce. Data is tracked via the cloud-based OneThird dashboard that provides data and insights. Knowing the shelf life of produce in real-time enables stakeholders across the food supply chain to make immediate and dynamic decisions regarding the shipment and sale of produce, including:
- Dynamic Routing: How to route the produce based on its shelf life and customer specifications;
- Where to Sell: Repurpose to food banks or processing (sauces, freeze drying) instead of having the produce rejected by customers due to short shelf life;
- Expiration or Best Before Dates: Have best before dates based on actual shelf-life instead of conservative default values;
- Dynamic Pricing: Grocers can apply a discount in-store if produce shelf life is near expiration.
All of these actions help supply chain stakeholders to prevent produce from being wasted and simultaneously save the majority of the costs associated with that loss.
“The astronomical volume of food that goes to waste each year is heartbreaking, particularly since so much is wasted in affluent countries. We’ve worked hard to create technology that helps to address this persistent, global challenge which directly impacts food scarcity,” said Marco Snikkers, CEO and founder of OneThird. “We are proud to have built the first product that accurately and objectively predicts the shelf life of fresh produce. The interest has been overwhelming and we aim to accelerate the deployment of our technology globally.”
About OneThird
OneThird is on a mission to address a $1 trillion annual problem — reducing the loss of one-third of all food produced worldwide. OneThird’s food tech solutions for growers, distributors and grocery retailers allow for high-accuracy shelf life prediction of produce at any stage of the supply chain — ensuring the right product gets to the right place at the right time. Using passion and creativity, OneThird delivers meaningful solutions to improve sustainability efforts, feed those in need, and save customers money.
Founded in 2019 in a digital incubator for FTSE 100 company Halma plc [LON:HLMA], and based in Enschede, The Netherlands, OneThird is a privately held company backed by Ocean Insight, the leader in applied spectral knowledge, impact investors SHIFT Invest and Oost NL. Follow OneThird on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or learn more at https://onethird.io. Access the OneThird press kit here.
