Food Waste Management – Food that is not utilized and thrown away causes a waste of energy. This practice immensely impacts the global economy, society and environment. Food wastage is a big problem in America, where they lose billions of dollars, puts a tax on natural and human resources and harm the environment by contributing to global warming and climate change. It adds to the landfills and produces the greenhouse poisonous gas methane.
One report by the Global Network Against Food Crisis indicates that around 135 million people across 55 countries and territories experienced acute food insecurity. This report is a flagship publication of the GNAFC and is facilitated by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).
What is the main reason for food waste? Food is wasted or is rendered unusable for edible purposes due to bad weather, wrong temperature, overproduction, and unstable market conditions.
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Food waste is directly proportional to wasting money. It is not kept at the proper temperature, is overcooked, overproduced, and not consumed on time, it all goes down the drain. It is bad for the environment too as producing, moving, storing, and cooking food uses energy, water, and fuel. All these steps produce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
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Food waste implies water waste. If you are wasting food, you are wasting gallons of water too, as agricultural produce is based on freshwater. Those freshwater resources are diminishing quickly.
We have not heard of many food waste management applications as of now. But an app in itself cannot simply make people not save food. Around 1/3rd of the world’s food lands up in landfills, and the number of impoverished and hungry people is maximum in Africa, Asia and adjoining subcontinents.
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The global waste management industry is increasingly making use of innovative technologies to fight off the waste crisis and environmental pollution. Tesco has been scrapping “best before” dates on some fruits and vegetables to reduce the amount of “perfectly edible” waste. Many restaurant chains are helping the hungry and homeless with leftover food. Now a new array of mobile applications is stepping in that can help connect farmers to consumers and growers to intermediaries, and retailers to charities. Some functional waste management technologies that are being practiced are:
In this way, the android-based food waste management system helps restaurants in reducing food waste and helps feed the poor people.
Such systems control waste by raising a request to the NGO works by sending a request to the restaurant manager of the particular restaurant. The NGO Manager then approves the request and assigns it to one of the NGO employees for takeaway and forwards the request to the restaurant. The administrators can track the history of restaurants and NGOs for the leftover foods and can share them at the end of the day.
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The cost of building a food waste management app depends on factors like user demographics, functionality, number of features, locality, and fossil fuel usage. Moreover, food wastage has complex interactions in the food system, which affect food prices and availability, including production patterns and input use.
A comprehensive framework for food wastage full-cost accounting requires for informed decision-making. It is also the aggregate net welfare from a hypothetical food system with less food waste. The optimal food welfare level is when the welfare difference is maximum between the current and hypothetical food systems.
It is not the food shortage but the excessiveness that distorts the food value chain. The amount of food thrown in the garbage bins comes close to one-third of the total processed food. We have enough food to feed everyone on the planet.
Leftover management apps can be a great deal to order a perfectly delicious meal from restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets at a bargain price. Food waste management apps (Android and iOS) provide a platform for people to donate their leftovers to those in need. It acts as a medium through which restaurants, hotels, and individuals can donate food that is edible but in surplus quantity. It helps donators construct a shared collaboration medium for hostels, restaurants, hotels, volunteers, and NGOs. Apart from processed food, you can also order fruits and veggies, and grocery staples like coffee, eggs, grains, canned goods, and bread to nourish the poor and needy.
It mainly consists of four modules that are admin, NGO, donators, and volunteers. One can load and stress test such applications to prevent crashing during crucial moments. Additionally, creating an MVP and having end-users test it with user acceptance testing would be ideal for getting an early set of feedback. If you’re looking for waste management app development? Request a call with experts!
Neeti Kotia is a technology journalist who seeks to analyze the advancements and developments in technology that affect our everyday lives. Her articles primarily focus upon the business, social, cultural, and entertainment side of the technology sector.
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