Most foods can be consumed for much longer than the expiration date stated on the label. Even though most people have heard this, only 20 % of EU citizens act accordingly. The consequences are that the expiration date leads to good food being thrown away and wasted unnecessarily: according to the European Commission up to 10% of the 88 million tons of food waste generated annually in the EU are linked to misinterpretation of “Best Before” and “Use by” dates. The FreshIndex aims at reducing this waste and the resulting costs by combining state-of-the-art IoT technology with the latest results in digital food modelling. We have created FreshIndex, a platform for the exchange of data on food quality and safety, to provide all parties information on exact and true freshness of the food. This platform will be offered as a service to the numerous retail chains. Over the past years, the food industry has adopted the EPCIS standard that enables creating and sharing food tracking data. The state-of-the-art approaches to food safety and quality range from scanners, tests, TTIs, sensors, traceability and food chain analytics but they all require hardware and do not provide any information to consumers. Our solution allows consumers to use their mobile phones to scan the product barcodes and get detailed information on the product production, its path to the consumer and the remaining shelf-life. The FreshIndex is the exact expiry date which will enhance the current sub-optimal solution and contribute to reduction of costs and food waste.
