Written by: Andrea Adelmo Della Penna
From: WIISE
A meeting was held last week between the WASTELESS project and the SecureFood project to demonstrate the respective tools developed to promote the prevention and reduction of food waste at various stages of the supply chain.

The presentation of the WASTE-SEC tool was made by Dr. Charis Galanakis, responsible for its development (currently in progress). The tool aims to provide support to users to adopt the best strategies to balance food security with food loss and waste. This is just one aspect of the different complexities of food systems, which can suddenly be subject to crises and risks of food shortages due to production factors, climate, import dependency, wars, the final result of which is food insecurity. And it is on these risks that the SecureFood project is based, to develop an approach to increase the resilience of food systems in the event of such adverse conditions, such as the continuous generation of food losses and waste.
Representing the WASTELESS project was the WP2 developers, who presented the five technological innovations developed specifically for the project:
– Blockchain registry;
– Computer vision-based image analysis;
– AI-based data driven approach for retailers and consumers;
– Surplus stock measurement and management tool;
– Automatic system for FW assessment at household.
Dr. Galanakis is also a member of the advisory board of WASTELESS, and has extensive experience in the food sector. In addition to an exchange of the technological solutions designed and developed by the respective projects, the meeting aimed to identify the strengths of the tools and the challenges related to the willingness of potential users to use them, the regulatory and policy aspects of food loss and waste, the choice of the right proxy data, and the characteristics of the tools themselves.
This meeting demonstrated the importance of collaboration between EU-funded projects in order to exchange experiences gained on a specific topic, such as food waste, in order to achieve better results that serve their intended purpose. Indeed, the meeting fostered a lively exchange of ideas and suggestions, focusing on improving tools, refining data sources, and addressing regulatory aspects to enhance project outcomes.
To find out more about the SecureFood project, please visit the reference website: https://secure-food.eu/