FoodTech: startups fighting food waste
Can tech solutions slow the environmental crisis?
Each year, around 20kg of food per person is wasted. It costs between 12 to 20 billions of euros, just in France. It is not only a huge waste of money but also an environmental disaster. In order to raise people’s awareness to this problem and to make a change, new anti-food waste companies recently appeared in the foodtech industry.
Nowadays a lot of food products are thrown away because they are close to their expiry date or are just left unsold in supermarkets. It represents a colossal amount of food waste and, bizarrely it is often food that could be consumed. Food waste is a big concern for ecological transition and it is vital that we try to reduce it. Consequently, some companies decided they should do something in order to raise people’s awareness and to encourage the reduction of food waste.
One of the most innovative players in this arena is Too Good To Go, a Danish startup created in 2016. The idea of its CEO, Mette Lykke, was to create a massive network around unsold products and to sell them to customers at a low price. It is now a big player in the “food-waste” market with around 2200 retailers registered in more than 40 French cities. The application has saved more than 2 million meals and is becoming more and more popular. Furthermore, another key factor is contributing to the big success of Too Good To Go: the application is well made with an interactive map that shows where you can pick unsold meals close to your location and making it easy to just come and pick them up. (http://www.startup-story.fr/entrepreneurs/foodtech-too-good-to-go-la-startup-anti-gaspillage-alimentaire.html) It is very easy to use and to understand: retailers are sorted by category and a thumbnail indicates whether the shop is open or not. You can pay within the application and the only thing the customer has to do is to go to the shop and pick your meal. It is also possible to give a couple of euros to the company and pay a portion of food to be provided to a charity supporting the homeless. The application makes it easy and fast to fight against food waste. The company has seen 250% growth and is in more than 6 countries around Europe. There are now similar players in the market like OptiMiam, Karma… (https://ww.ladn.eu/entreprises-innovantes/techforgood/zero-dechet-cantines-intelligentes-foodtech-lutte-gaspillage-alimentaire/)
Another good example of a company that is fighting against food waste is Jettepaspartage. It’s a platform that connects consumers, donors, and associations together. It is very easy to use; everyone has the possibility to give or collect food on the platform just by registering on the website.
LoveYourWaste is another company that is trying to fight against food waste by directly reaching out to companies. They are helping big restaurant businesses to better manage their waste by transforming them into biogas and natural fertilizer… Since April 2015 they have saved 789 tons of waste and they have customers like L’Oréal and the Mairie de Paris…
All these players are making a big change in the Foodtech sector. Indeed since 2016, there has been a huge growth in the Foodtech sector. We all have in mind big players like Deliveroo, UberEats but also growing players like Frichti, FoodChéri, and other delivery services. They all have a great offer and a big success because of the growing needs of companies and customers in that area. Frichti, for example, it is a well known French delivery service. It is very popular because it offers fresh products. They have an innovative way of communicating and they offer services for companies and also for direct customers. Direct customers can buy meals, recipes and also basically do their grocery shopping within the application. The application is very modern and easy to use, the service is great. Seeing the growth in the environmental concerns, the company has recently (in 2019) signed an anti-waste charter with other FoodTech companies. (https://old.karma.life/fr/charte-bonne-conduite-foodtech/)
This charter, created by Karma (another anti-food-waste company) gives hope for the future. All the companies who signed it have in mind that fighting against food-waste is key. They have pledged to take the further steps needed to integrate and have a better ecological transition by taking practical actions and implement them in their services/products by 2030. The goal is to reduce by half the volume of food-waste (from the distribution to the consumption of goods and all along the production and delivery chain).
Each company who signed it will commit to:
1) Targets have to reach in order to reduce their environmental impact. It means not just having great ideas on how to reduce the food-waste but also having practical ideas and key numbers in mind in order to reduce it.
2) Prioritize the fight against food waste. It means they will have to redistribute or use in a better way all the usable food waste.
3) Collaborate and convince a maximum number of people, acting as advocates for change.
To conclude, we can point out the fact that even if the French Foodtech industry still has a way to go when it comes to food waste, it is a young and dynamic industry that knows what’s important for the future and does not hesitate to take actions to fight for a better ecological transition.
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Business Strategy. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DBS.
