Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ZeroW (Systemic Innovations Towards a Zero Food Waste Supply Chain)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30
World hunger is on the rise, yet a third of all food produced globally goes to waste. The EU-funded ZeroW project aims to provide significant contributions to preventing and reducing food waste and enhancing the sustainability of food supply chains. Specifically, ZeroW will carry out the demonstration of diverse innovations in nine real-life food chains, employing a systemic innovation approach to effectively address the multidimensional issue of food waste. Moreover, the project will justify how scaling up the results of the demonstrated innovations, and combining them with appropriate policies, can bring us closer to the Green Deal’s 2030 food waste reduction goals.
ZeroW has set the ambitious target of playing a key role in the transition of current food systems towards halving Food Loss & Waste (FLW) by 2030 and reaching near-zero FLW by 2050.
ZeroW provides significant impacts through the demonstration of innovations in nine real-life food chains, by employing a systemic innovation approach, to effectively address the multidimensional issue of FLW. This involves:
(i) pre-identifying systemic innovations, that incorporate multiple interlinked dimensions (process, organisational, strategy, marketing, product, technological, governance, etc.), which are tested and demonstrated;
(ii) steering the evolution of innovations towards higher levels of systemic readiness and impact, using a Living Lab co-creation and multi-actor collective learning approach;
(iii) enhancing the Living Lab actors’ innovation advancement capability with shared resources facilitating new ways and means of cooperating and co-developing innovations;
(iv) developing context-specific trajectories for the systemic innovations (from ideation to scaling-up and commercialisation) leading to the provision of currently missing end products and services that align with consumer attitudes, food actor needs and policy trends.
Moreover, ZeroW establishes a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, from demonstrator results (2025), scaled up to meet the F2F 2030 goals, and steered through a ‘just transition pathway’ towards a near-zero FLW in 2050.
ZeroW has set the ambitious target of playing a key role in the transition of current food systems towards halving Food Loss & Waste (FLW) by 2030 and reaching near-zero FLW by 2050.
ZeroW provides significant impacts through the demonstration of innovations in nine real-life food chains, by employing a systemic innovation approach, to effectively address the multidimensional issue of FLW. This involves:
(i) pre-identifying systemic innovations, that incorporate multiple interlinked dimensions (process, organisational, strategy, marketing, product, technological, governance, etc.), which are tested and demonstrated;
(ii) steering the evolution of innovations towards higher levels of systemic readiness and impact, using a Living Lab co-creation and multi-actor collective learning approach;
(iii) enhancing the Living Lab actors’ innovation advancement capability with shared resources facilitating new ways and means of cooperating and co-developing innovations;
(iv) developing context-specific trajectories for the systemic innovations (from ideation to scaling-up and commercialisation) leading to the provision of currently missing end products and services that align with consumer attitudes, food actor needs and policy trends.
Moreover, ZeroW establishes a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, from demonstrator results (2025), scaled up to meet the F2F 2030 goals, and steered through a ‘just transition pathway’ towards a near-zero FLW in 2050.
In its first 18 months, ZeroW established a foundation for Food Loss and Waste (FLW) reduction impacts by launching nine Systemic Innovations Living Labs (SILLs), each adhering to its strategic plan and achieving distinct milestones.
SILL1 introduced a platform to accumulate FLW data from Romania and Slovenia, featuring a user interface with interactive dashboards. SILL2 initiated the creation of biodegradable and compostable packaging for fresh fish, including a smart bioactive label indicating freshness. SILL3 established a tomato image database and machine learning models for functionalities like ripeness identification. SILL4 focused on food valorisation as a service through mobile food processing unit, identifying 4 potential use cases, optimising technical processes, and engaging with key stakeholders. SILL5 enhanced the Multiscan sorting platform for identifying and assessing the shelf-life of 'ugly' food by a protocol for data collection, and various parameters for sorting, like weight and shelf life. SILL6 worked on reducing poultry meat processing waste by designing and initiation of implementation of advanced production process controls. SILL7 worked towards food waste reduction through efficient food bank networks and developing a decision support tool for food banks and retailers. SILL8 led retail food waste valorisation through algae production by developing in-store pre-treatment process steps and working on compound characterisation and nutritional value analysis. SILL9, "Fork to Farm to Fork" (3F), focused on reducing FLW at the consumer level with a menu planning model.
Concurrently, the project team developed the Systemic Innovation Readiness Level (SIRL) tool and a framework for evaluating impacts, documented in the Impact Assessment Methodology report. Major efforts enhanced the SILLs’ innovation progression through developing Big Data Infrastructural Services (BDIS) and 0FLW dataspace, and focusing on smart applications and AI implementations.
The project completed an in-depth market analysis of the four identified innovation clusters to steer the sustainable implementation. Efforts were also invested into establishing a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, initiating work on identifying alternative near-zero FLW pathways through direct engagement with stakeholders. The team actively engaged in collaborative activities with various networks like GD-SO and Food2030, contributing to the Open Research approach and effectively using social media to raise awareness.
SILL1 introduced a platform to accumulate FLW data from Romania and Slovenia, featuring a user interface with interactive dashboards. SILL2 initiated the creation of biodegradable and compostable packaging for fresh fish, including a smart bioactive label indicating freshness. SILL3 established a tomato image database and machine learning models for functionalities like ripeness identification. SILL4 focused on food valorisation as a service through mobile food processing unit, identifying 4 potential use cases, optimising technical processes, and engaging with key stakeholders. SILL5 enhanced the Multiscan sorting platform for identifying and assessing the shelf-life of 'ugly' food by a protocol for data collection, and various parameters for sorting, like weight and shelf life. SILL6 worked on reducing poultry meat processing waste by designing and initiation of implementation of advanced production process controls. SILL7 worked towards food waste reduction through efficient food bank networks and developing a decision support tool for food banks and retailers. SILL8 led retail food waste valorisation through algae production by developing in-store pre-treatment process steps and working on compound characterisation and nutritional value analysis. SILL9, "Fork to Farm to Fork" (3F), focused on reducing FLW at the consumer level with a menu planning model.
Concurrently, the project team developed the Systemic Innovation Readiness Level (SIRL) tool and a framework for evaluating impacts, documented in the Impact Assessment Methodology report. Major efforts enhanced the SILLs’ innovation progression through developing Big Data Infrastructural Services (BDIS) and 0FLW dataspace, and focusing on smart applications and AI implementations.
The project completed an in-depth market analysis of the four identified innovation clusters to steer the sustainable implementation. Efforts were also invested into establishing a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, initiating work on identifying alternative near-zero FLW pathways through direct engagement with stakeholders. The team actively engaged in collaborative activities with various networks like GD-SO and Food2030, contributing to the Open Research approach and effectively using social media to raise awareness.
ZeroW will go beyond the state of the art by addressing specific innovation maturity gaps needed for building effective FLW solutions, including the:
- inconsistencies among various definitions of FLW and their focus only on volumetric assessment, providing limited insight on devising appropriate strategies (SILL1);
- conflict mechanisms between FLW reduction and food poverty & food system resilience (SILL7);
- assessment of systemic readiness of FLW solutions, to steer innovation towards achieving high impact targets (all SILLs).
ZeroW will provide beyond the SoTA intelligent solutions, among which:
- innovative algorithms in support of food waste reduction through data-driven production process optimisation;
- novel analytical and software-based algorithms and associated services for greenhouse farms that enable efficient links between harvesting and food chain capabilities and demand requirements to reduce food loss;
- advanced systems and methods to accurately forecast the number of people and households that will apply for food bank support in the short, medium and longer term;
- new supply chain management/optimisation algorithms to deal with the extreme levels of uncertainty that food banks face when compared to commercial companies;
- the non-obvious application of (recent) mathematical optimisation techniques such as multi-objective optimisation and robust optimisation applied to dietetics and its ability to positively influence FLW;
- cloud based systems and methods for deducing freshness colour changes in products with constrained shelf-life and the subsequent step of transforming colour change to algorithmically infer remaining shelf life.
The project will lead to seven major impacts:
Contribute significantly to the achievement of the objectives and targets of the F2F Strategy and the European Green Deal, and in particular:
1) to halving the per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030.
2) to reducing GHG-emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.
3) Reduce food losses and waste and the use of unsustainable packaging, at every stage of the food chain including consumption.
4) Provide sufficient, safe, nutritious, healthy and affordable food for all.
5) Improve the overall sustainability of food systems (social/health, climate/environmental and economic).
6) Improve the resilience of food systems to shocks and stresses.
7) Achieve an increase in awareness among policy makers, businesses, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, stakeholders and citizens of selected innovative systemic solutions, of their potential and of the requirements to promote and realise their uptake at EU scale and behavioural change.
- inconsistencies among various definitions of FLW and their focus only on volumetric assessment, providing limited insight on devising appropriate strategies (SILL1);
- conflict mechanisms between FLW reduction and food poverty & food system resilience (SILL7);
- assessment of systemic readiness of FLW solutions, to steer innovation towards achieving high impact targets (all SILLs).
ZeroW will provide beyond the SoTA intelligent solutions, among which:
- innovative algorithms in support of food waste reduction through data-driven production process optimisation;
- novel analytical and software-based algorithms and associated services for greenhouse farms that enable efficient links between harvesting and food chain capabilities and demand requirements to reduce food loss;
- advanced systems and methods to accurately forecast the number of people and households that will apply for food bank support in the short, medium and longer term;
- new supply chain management/optimisation algorithms to deal with the extreme levels of uncertainty that food banks face when compared to commercial companies;
- the non-obvious application of (recent) mathematical optimisation techniques such as multi-objective optimisation and robust optimisation applied to dietetics and its ability to positively influence FLW;
- cloud based systems and methods for deducing freshness colour changes in products with constrained shelf-life and the subsequent step of transforming colour change to algorithmically infer remaining shelf life.
The project will lead to seven major impacts:
Contribute significantly to the achievement of the objectives and targets of the F2F Strategy and the European Green Deal, and in particular:
1) to halving the per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030.
2) to reducing GHG-emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.
3) Reduce food losses and waste and the use of unsustainable packaging, at every stage of the food chain including consumption.
4) Provide sufficient, safe, nutritious, healthy and affordable food for all.
5) Improve the overall sustainability of food systems (social/health, climate/environmental and economic).
6) Improve the resilience of food systems to shocks and stresses.
7) Achieve an increase in awareness among policy makers, businesses, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, stakeholders and citizens of selected innovative systemic solutions, of their potential and of the requirements to promote and realise their uptake at EU scale and behavioural change.