INESC TEC is leading a project that aims to tackle food waste, by improving operational efficiency in the food value chain. The project, called Be Fresh – Integrating Consumer Behavior to Improve Food Value Chains, falls in with three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely ending hunger, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. INESC TEC’s new project will start in January 2022.

Be Fresh will study consumer behaviour regarding the shelf life of products, analysing its impact and how it can be incorporated into the discount planning and production issues of various entities, from producers to retailers in the food chain.

Pedro Amorim, coordinator of CEGI and the project, explained that “through the analysis of results, there are several benefits to the different players in the food value chain. Consumers can access products with discounts, retailers can increase product sales before their expiration dates, reducing waste and increasing revenue, and producers can adopt more flexible operations, allowing for reduced consumption of resources and less operating costs. Furthermore, the project’s results can help policy makers to promote new rules against food waste.”

For this project, INESC TEC brought together an international team, with researchers from the University of Porto, the Polytechnic of Porto, Chicago Booth and UT Dallas, and established partnerships with national producers and retailers. The project is financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), with an allocated budget of €250K.

 

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.

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