The ECR Community Shrink & OSA Group has announced that its Food Waste Prevention Challenge is nearing completion.
The group is set to host a two-day Sell More, Waste Less meeting in Brussels on 26 and 27 June, at which five innovative start-ups will present their breakthrough innovations on food waste management to a panel of top European retailers, including Tesco, Lidl and Albert.
The meeting will mark the conclusion of a process that commenced late last year, during which a longlist of more than 100 start-ups was devised.
Following on from this, that list was cut down to 20, and is in the process of being cut to five in advance of the June meeting.
Focus Areas
Five core areas relating to food waste are being addressed by the Food Waste Prevention Innovation Challenge, including supply chain visibility; store and warehouse optimisation; extending shelf-life; clearance and reductions and; repurposing and reusing surplus products.
The ECR Community Shrink & OSA Group has worked closely with retailers across Europe to determine the areas of core concern to the trade.
Following the June meeting, a number of pilot workshops will be hosted in July, ahead of the potential implementation of said start-ups' technologies within the retail trade.
Speaking to ESM, John Fonteijn, head of global asset protection and business continuity management at Ahold Delhaize and chair of the ECR Community Shrink & OSA Group, said, "These solutions will not only have applications in retail, but also other sectors in which there are expiry date issues, such as pharmaceuticals, the medical industry, and restaurants and catering – any sector in which the short shelf-life of products can be an issue."
ECR is partnering with Co-Cubed on the Food Waste Prevention Challenge, with support from EuroCommerce.
For more details, click here.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
