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Big Data And A Shocking Waste Problem
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September 5, 2016 News

 

It’s a shocking fact that in the 21st century more than three quarters of a billion people do not have access to enough food to keep themselves healthy, while 30% of the food produced around the world goes to waste.

It’s partly a problem of logistics – it’s expensive to keep food fresh and get it to the people who need it most. This of course means its ripe for tackling with technology and Big Data.

Recently I had the chance to speak to one of the founders of Food Cloud – a social enterprise which harnesses the power of crowd sourcing in a bid to cut down on food wasted by retailers.

Food Cloud made headlines recently thanks to a partnership withTesco , the UK’s biggest grocery seller. The simple premise is that it matches retailers that have surplus food stocks with charities that have the facilities to deliver it to those who need it.

Of course even a concept this elegantly straightforward requires some fairly advanced technology if it’s going to be rolled out at the sort of scale necessary to bring about social change. And plans are underway to operate the scheme in 1,000 Tesco stores by the end of the year.

Co-founder Iseult Ward told me “Our data driven approach is what differentiates us from a lot of traditional food surplus redistribution organizations.

“We’re able to collect all sorts of data on all of the food which is donated, and the organizations it is donated to, which allows us to do things like provide full sourcing and measure the performance of the stores and charities.”

This article was originally published on www.forbes.com can be viewed in full

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