How AI Can Reduce Grocery Food Waste

To outsiders, the problem of food waste in retail seems obvious. Stop wasting food, duh! If reducing food waste were that simple, then it wouldn’t be such a hot topic among people who worry about it for a living. Fortunately, food retailers have a new tool at their disposal to reduce food waste: artificial intelligence.

One retailer, the online grocery store Ocado, is making heavy use of AI to tackle food waste, according to Forbes.

How It Works

The U.K. company has deployed AI analytics from warehousing to delivery. They use the technology to forecast demand for products from their many suppliers. This prevents them from ordering too much of something that they don’t need. When you deal with fresh produce, it’s important that you make the right call when deciding what products to carry, since food can spoil so quickly. AI can do this more accurately than humans can. Ocado generates over 20 million projections in a day.

The use of AI doesn’t just extend to ordering products. The company also uses the technology to track inventory. A lot of food waste in retail happens before it can reach store shelves due to incorrect storage. As good as AI is, Ocado has to rely on all-too-human workers to move and store food in warehouses. A product might be placed in an unrefrigerated section when it should be refrigerated, causing it to spoil. AI can catch these mistakes before they become expensive waste.

How AI Reduces Spoilage

Food also spoils even if it’s stored correctly. Most consumers aren’t Civil War reenactors and want fresh food. Spoilage is a fact of basic biology, and with a company like Ocado whose store shelves are virtual, throwing food into recycling bins is not an option. That’s why their system tracks which parts of their inventory are getting close to their expiration dates. The company donates them to local food banks.

Thanks to cloud computing, there’s no reason for grocery retailers not to take advantage of AI to reduce food waste.