WP 2.3Spoke 02

Digital technologies and solutions for food waste management and reduction

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Highlights

Research projects
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Blog postJul 18, 2024

Circular economy, innovative processes, and new green technologies to reduce food waste and make the most of by-products

Spoke 02

WP 2.1WP 2.2
WP 2.3
WP 2.4
Research projects
Digital technologies play a crucial role in WP 2.3’s efforts to reduce food waste and enhance the efficiency of food production and storage. Research activities under WP 2.3 develop tools to control and assess food waste, with the ultimate goal of creating sustainable solutions that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and enhance the food system for everyone. 

One of the focus areas is creating a multidisciplinary food supply chain and waste management knowledge inventory. This will be a repository of knowledge and primary/secondary data that will be used to classify and model issues related to waste management and reduction in the food and packaging supply chain. This task aims to develop user-friendly data analysis and visualisation tools that can be used by all stakeholders, including the final consumer. The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) paradigm will be used to achieve this goal. Additionally, WP 2.3 will investigate adopting instruments that enable regular food waste measurement.

Another investigating area is food and packaging waste control and assessment. This task aims to connect products, processes, production/manufacturing systems, and logistics networks by developing innovative quantitative and multi-objective models and methods/algorithms. These tools will be used to design, plan, and control the material flows through the food and packaging supply chain towards a circular economy.

The third area of focus is the development of digital-twin and IoT solutions for food and packaging waste reduction. This task involves the design, development, validation, and application of intelligent decision support systems to control and optimise manufacturing, packaging, and distribution issues/decisions in the food and packaging product life cycle. The aim is to identify best practices for reducing food waste through surplus food reuse, recycling, and recovery, focusing on a circular economy and social responsibility approach.

Task and deliverables

Task 2.3.1.

Multidisciplinary food supply chain (FSC) & waste management knowledge inventory. A repository of knowledge and primary/secondary data for the classification and modelling of issues related to (1) waste management and reduction in food and packaging supply chain (FPSC), (2) user-friendly data analysis and visualisation, (3) development of innovative digital technology solutions for the benefit of all stakeholders including final consumer. The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) paradigm will be used. The adoption of instruments enabling regular food waste measurement will be investigated (in connection with Spoke 1).

Task 2.3.2.

Food & packaging waste control & assessment. Aim of this task is to connect products, processes, production/manufacturing systems and logistic networks by the development of innovative quantitative and multi- objective models and methods/algorithms for the design, planning and control of material flows through the food & packaging supply chain towards a circular economy (in connection with Spokes 1 and 7).

Task 2.3.3.

Digital-twin and IoT solutions for food and packaging waste reduction. Aim of this task is the design, development, validation, and application of intelligent decision support systems for the control and optimisation of manufacturing, packaging and distribution issues/decisions in food & packaging product life cycle. Best practices of food waste reduction (through surplus food reuse, recycling, and recovery according to the Food Waste Hierarchy framework) will be identified towards a circular economy and social responsibility approach (in connection with Spoke 1).

Milestones

M2.3.1.1.

Definition of conceptual life-cycle framework (product-process-network-system-stakeholder) for food supply chain and production, and multidisciplinary key-performance-indicators (KPI) selection for FPSC assessment (M6)

M2.3.1.2.

Data architecture design, data collection (primary and secondary) and inventory (M6)

M2.3.2.1.

Integrated models design and development for waste measurement, control and assessment in food and packaging supply chain (M12)

M2.3.2.2.

Externalities evaluation within the whole supply chain and involving all stakeholders (M12)

M2.3.3.1.

Digital-twin, novel technologies and decision support system (DSS) design and development (M24)

M2.3.3.2.

Piloting, demonstrators design & development (M30).