BLOCKFoodWaste
An Integrated Blockchain Platform and a Smart Mobile App for Tackling Food Waste and Supporting Food Insecure Citizens
Completed Project - Time Period: 2021-2023
Partners: ORLOG - Cyclefi - iSMood
Abstract
The phenomenon of food waste constitutes a major global issue, entailing immensely significant environmental and socio-economic repercussions. The increase in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, in particular, resulting in climate change due to food being discarded, combined with land degradation and irrigation water scarcity on account of growing food to be wasted, turn out to be the most ecologically destructive ones. Furthermore, the substantial detriment in the form of economic loss owing to food cultivation, storage, processing, transportation, distribution and disposal, while millions of people, both in developing and developed countries, are affected by food insecurity, indicates the social and economic ramifications of the problem.
Therefore, it is imperative that food waste be reduced, in order for the impact of the above-mentioned consequences to be minimized. This can be achieved through focusing on food waste throughout the food supply chain, which, as far as developed countries, such as Greece, are concerned, occurs during the final consumption stage. To be more specific, large quantities of edible food are wasted in food-service establishments, stemming from both customers and the kitchen, due to inefficient demand forecasting. Considering Greece’s economic recession and unemployment rates, it is important that a system, allowing the food-service establishments to utilize the surplus food by providing it to food insecure people, be created.
The proposed research concentrates on the intersection of two rapidly growing scientific areas, that of food waste management and that of Blockchain technology, which will be used to ensure continuous communication between food-service establishments and food insecure people, using an online ledger, where the quantity and type of food made available by each contracting party will be shared with a view to optimizing the allocation of excess food. The aim of the proposed project is to develop a mobile platform, which will be composed of three
(3) subsystems. Firstly, it will consist of a data collection subsystem, which will gather data streams, such as photos and nutrition information on the food available, for visualization purposes. Secondly, it will consist of a reward subsystem, through which food donations will be monetized, by providing tokens, as a reward, to the contracting parties, thereby creating a co-operative incentive. Finally, it will consist of an application subsystem, which will enable the visualization of the information gathered and offer value-added services to both food-service establishments and food insecure users of the application.
In the long term, the abovementioned project aspires to promote an analytical and sustainable plan to reduce food waste in Greek food-service establishments, while providing food aid to people in need. Moreover, it plans on scaling the implementation of its results up into such a way that it also permits consumers to provide edible food, which they do not need and would otherwise dispose of, to food insecure people.
PI: Prof. Stavros Ponis
PI: Prof. Stavros Ponis
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