AgriTech Startup WayCool Foods Join Hands with IIT-Hyderabad to Develop Packaging Solution to Reduce Food Wastage

WayCool and IIT-Hyderabad sign 3-year MoU to develop antimicrobial food packaging and reduce wastage in the food supply chain

Packaging solution aims to enhance the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by 2X-3X

WayCool will invest around INR 2 million over 3 years in this association

Chennai, 20 January 2021: WayCool Foods has signed a 3-year MoU with IIT Hyderabad (IIT-H) to develop antimicrobial food packaging material by using biopolymers. The MoU was signed and exchanged between Karthik Jayaraman, CEO, WayCool Foods and Sumohana Channappayya, Dean (R&D), IIT-H in Hyderabad.

The aim is to develop economically viable and biodegradable packaging that will retain the freshness of fruits and vegetables longer, leading to a reduction in food wastage across the supply chain by upto 20%. This packing material will enhance the shelf life of mainstream fruits and vegetables such as okra, capsicum, Indian gooseberry, and guava as well as exotic produce such as strawberry and broccoli. WayCool will invest close to INR 2 million over a period of 3 years of this association.

On the occasion of the MoU signing, Vignesh Kumar Manogaran, EVP, WayCool Foods, said, "From inception, WayCool Foods has been actively working towards reducing food wastage on multiple fronts. The association with IIT Hyderabad to co-develop a sustainable alternate packaging solution further supplements our in-house R&D and Innovation efforts. The collaboration will help us work closely with the bright minds of India's premier institutions and strengthen industry-academia linkage."

WayCool distributes its wide range of fresh produce and staples in brands such as Shuddha, Dhaanyaa, KitchenJi, L'exotique, Madhuram, and Freshey's, to nearly 20,000 retail outlets, as well as institutional clients. The innovative packaging, when developed, is intended to be starkly different from conventional packaging and will help consumers enjoy fresh produce longer.

In the drive towards creating a social impact, WayCool has a farmer engagement program, Outgrow, that engages with farmers through the entire cultivation cycle, from planning to inputs to harvesting. In the process, WayCool helps to substantially increase farmer profitability, reduce risk, and guarantees 270 days of steady income to farmers by leveraging a host of emerging technologies to measure soil health, ensure quality of inputs, capture agricultural practices, and measure output quality.

During the MoU signing, Dr. Mudrika Khandelwal, The Cellulose Group (Head), IIT Hyderabad said, "Biopolymer is an environment friendly food packaging material. We are happy to collaborate with WayCool Foods to develop this unique solution to enhance product shelf-life whilst also reducing the overall carbon footprint related to food packaging. It is important to devise ways to create uncompromised innovations that meet our sustainability goals while providing customer-focused solutions."

About WayCool Foods Pvt. Ltd.

WayCool Foods, founded in July 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, is India's largest agri supply chain startup. Focusing on food development and distribution, the Company leverages innovative technology to scale and operate a complex supply chain. WayCool operates a full stack, broadline product range across multiple channels and categories such as fresh produce, staples, and dairy, serving over 18,000 clients in the general trade, modern trade, and food services space.

Twice as Much Food being Wasted Globally As Thought: Study

Consumers around the world may be wasting more than twice as much food as commonly believed, according to a study.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that in 2005, one third of all food available for human consumption was wasted, researchers from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands noted.

This figure has continued to serve as reference for the extent of global food waste, they said.

However, the FAO methodology does not factor in consumer behaviour regarding food wastage, and considers food supply alone in determining the extent of food waste, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is the first to investigate if and how consumer affluence may affect food waste, they said.

"Novel research using energy requirement and consumer affluence data shows that consumers waste more than twice as much food as is commonly believed," said Monika van den Bos Verma from Wageningen University and Research.

"It provides a new globally comparable base against which one can measure progress on the international food waste target, and suggests a threshold level of consumer affluence around which to launch intervention policies to prevent food waste from becoming a big problem," Verma said.

Using a human metabolism model and data from FAO, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO, the researchers quantified the relationship between food waste and consumer affluence.

Using this model, they created an international dataset providing estimates of global as well as country specific food waste.

The researchers found that once consumer affluence reaches a spending threshold of about USD 6.70 per day per capita, consumer food waste starts to rise.

The wastage increases rapidly with rising affluence at first, and then at much slower rates at higher levels of affluence, they said.

The study also showed that FAO's estimates of consumer food waste may be too low.

While FAO estimated food waste to be 214 kilo calories per day (Kcal/day) per capita in 2015, the new model estimated food waste as 527 Kcal/day per capita for the same year. This work relies on the accuracy of FAO's data, which may not always be complete.

The researchers also noted there are many consumer attributes that may affect food wastage beyond affluence.

However, the new study suggests that to achieve low global food waste, a joint focus on reducing high food waste levels in high income countries, and preventing waste levels from rising rapidly in lower-middle income countries -- where affluence is increasing -- may be needed.

The researchers believe that the method behind this study can be used as a basis to introduce the affluence elasticity of waste as a new concept in future models.

It may also help better understand and assess current food waste magnitudes, and help measure global progress in reducing food waste, they said. PTI

How IoT Can Also Be Used To Reduce Wastage of Food

According to shocking statistics made available by Food and Agriculture Organisation, every year around 1.7 billion tonnes, or almost one third of food produced for human consumption, is lost or wasted globally. Further, the associated economic, environmental and social costs of this loss are around $1 trillion, $700 billion and $900 billion per year respectively. In India alone, the value of food wastage is estimated to be around Rs 92,000 crore per annum at 2014 wholesale prices.

Unfortunately, all these numbers are exponentially increasing rather than going the other way around. Hence, it is obvious that the all the current methods being employed to curb the problem aren't working out the way the humanity predicted and there's a need for new and better ways. This is where IoT steps in.

Yes, the Internet of Things in addition to all the things that it does, can also help the mankind significantly reduce wastage of food.

The temperature of produce is crucial for its shelf-life. Not only does the wrong temperature make for a lot of percentage of food wastage, but it also makes it difficult for the consumers to trust the used by date written on the produce. And since, food produce travels around the world, this problem arises more often than we would want.

In order to solve this problem, Switzerland’s Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology has devised an interesting approach. They have developed a sensor in the shape of a piece of fruit so that it can travel alongside real fruit and gather information on the conditions present in the crate or pallet in which the produce is travelling from point A to point B.

The fruit shaped sensor has been meticulously designed to simulate the real fruit not only in its size but also its composition. The data emitted by the sensor can then be analysed to understand the temperature of the crate during the produce transportation.

The Switzerland-based lab was able to receive the accurate representation of each fruit by X-raying the produce, with an algorithm then used to create the average shape and texture of that of a fruit. After this, the researchers determined the composition of the fruit’s flesh and simulated it in the lab. The next step involves sending it to a 3D printer, where a mold is created which has sensors inside to record the data.

Although the invention is quite innovative, its price point of around £40 might prove to be too pricey. Also, the real-time analysis of the produce is currently not possible with the technology.

Another firm that is focused towards really solving the world's food wastage problem is, California based Zest Labs. According to their website, they provide an end-to-end solution for managing freshness of produce, using automated data capture and Cloud-based, real-time analytics to enable workers to make the best decisions.

Their technology, which monitors the produce at the pallet level, and provides real-time feedback, has already allowed retailers to save almost 18% of produce that previously went to waste. For example, if the technology detects that the produce is ageing more quickly than anticipated, it can be routed to a closer store so that it can have its decent shelf-life.

So, it is time the food sector starts embracing the power of IoT and use it solve the problem of food wastage.

[Top Image: yostartups]