Dutch food tech start-up OneThird is helping consumers reduce food waste by making it easier to find a perfectly ripe avocado.
Shoppers simply place an avocado on the scanner to check its remaining shelf life. This helps to avoid picking up overripe mushy fruit or ones that are too firm, without having to squeeze and check the fruit by hand, potentially damaging it.
The machine works by using an artificial intelligence-powered optical scanner to determine the freshness of an individual fruit. OneThird is a spinoff company from Halma PLC, which used the technology in various medical applications. The scanner looks to repurpose the technology to help combat the global issue of food waste, which sees a third of all food produced – worth approximately $1 trillion – wasted.
It looks to empower growers, distributors, retailers and consumers to tackle the problem. Insights based on a range of store conditions can help growers optimise crops and communication for customers, while distributors can benefit from insights into logistical decisions.
As well as avocados, by the end of 2023 the technology will be able to check the ripeness of 10 different foods, including grapes, bananas, mangos and raspberries.
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