Innovative Latvian Business Visionaries Employ a 'Digital Pantry' to Minimize Food Waste
In the face of staggering food waste statistics, the fight against food waste has become a global priority. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2024, about one-third of all food produced (around 2.5 billion tonnes annually) is lost or wasted, with 60% of edible food waste arising at the household level. This wastefulness exists alongside nearly 300 million people facing acute food insecurity, highlighting the critical need for food loss and waste (FLW) reduction initiatives.
One such initiative is the BestB4 app, designed to help consumers and retailers better manage and use food approaching sell-by or expiry dates. This app is playing a significant role in reducing avoidable food waste, contributing to economic and environmental benefits, and aligning with broader sustainability and food security goals.
The BestB4 app offers several features to combat food waste. Users can maintain a 'virtual fridge', receiving notifications when a product's expiration date is approaching. This feature serves as a helpful reminder to use perishable items before they go to waste. The app also provides recipe suggestions to use products in time, ensuring that food doesn't spoil unnecessarily.
The BestB4 team is committed to improving the app's functionality. Plans include expanding the recipe database by collaborating with popular content creators and making it easier to add new products and improve the recipe recommendation algorithm in the future.
The app's goal is to make a difference at the household level, where 60% of food waste originates. Sandija Opincāne, BestB4 project leader, stated that the app aims to help people monitor product expiry dates more effectively, reducing food waste and financial loss.
In Europe, each person wastes an average of 131 kilograms of food annually, with over half of this waste coming from households. This translates to about one billion meals thrown away every day. On a global scale, 1.05 billion tonnes of food were discarded worldwide in 2022, accounting for 19% of all food available for consumption.
Technological solutions like BestB4 address food waste by increasing consumer awareness about dates and food usability beyond "best before" labels, enhancing retailer inventory management, and facilitating food redistribution through marketplaces connecting surplus food with buyers or charities. Such digital platforms fit within wider strategies targeting all points of the food supply chain, from production to retail and consumption, aiming to reduce the approximately 19% of global food wasted at retail and consumer levels.
Although specific quantitative statistics on BestB4’s impact are limited, the general consensus highlights that apps like these contribute significantly toward tackling the global challenge of food waste by influencing behaviours and supply chain efficiency through technology. The BestB4 app is free to use and developed with artificial intelligence, making it an accessible and efficient tool in the fight against food waste.
In conclusion, reducing global food waste is a major priority, and technology-driven initiatives like the BestB4 app are playing a key role in helping consumers and retailers reduce avoidable food waste, thereby contributing to economic and environmental benefits as part of larger global food security efforts.
- The BestB4 app, a European initiative, aims to curb food waste by allowing users to manage food approaching sell-by or expiry dates with features like a 'virtual fridge' and recipe suggestions, aligning with the global priority to combat food waste and shorten the distance between the staggering food waste statistics and the needs of the nearly 300 million people facing food insecurity.
- Coupled with artificial intelligence, the BestB4 app is designed to play a pivotal role in reducing the approximately 19% of food wasted at retail and consumer levels, integrating technology seamlessly into the global strategy of addressing food waste throughout the food supply chain, from production to consumption.
