How Can Mobile Apps Solve Challenges in Food Waste Management?

Nearly a third of the food is wasted by consumers and the private sector! This creates a critical demand for solving the food waste management challenge.

On the hunger index, there are ample countries that are struggling with food scarcity and poverty. But the great part of being in the modern world is technology.

Through technology, the food waste challenge can be solved. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a company, a mobile app idea aimed at solving the food waste management challenges can contribute to this critical issue. Let us learn more about the food waste management challenge in detail.

About The Challenges in Food Waste Management

In the UK alone, retailers and wholesalers produce around 1.7 million tonnes of food waste every year. Further, the app development companies in Australia are in high demand because each year Australians waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food and the government critically wants to solve it. The main challenge in food waste management is related to the forecasting of the gap between predicted and actual food sales.

Although restaurants, retailers, and wholesalers are working towards managing food through food donation programmes and recycling initiatives, they are not utilising the technology. And, in a world where several communities are sleeping without proper food, the food waste management challenge becomes essential to solve.

In brief, the challenges in food waste management contain the following factors:

• Lack of proper analysis and forecasting about the food overstock
• Absence of a real-time inventory management system
• Lack of effective communication between suppliers and consumers
• No transparency and quick solution for food waste

Although government campaigns are running throughout the world to utilize wasted food, a mobile app can solve the issue efficiently. However, it involves ample dynamics, which we will look at in the next section.

How Mobile Apps Can Solve Challenges in Food Waste Management?

Now comes the key question. How mobile apps can solve the challenge? Well, there can be ample types of food waste management apps, but we will talk about a complete super app. Entrepreneurs who are looking forward to solving food waste challenges will find important information in this section.

Data Analytics to Support Forecasting and Suggestions

What if restaurants and other entities evolving in any kind of food business get forecasting and suggestions associated with their stocks and the overall market? Mobile applications are intelligent enough to achieve this. With data analytics, food businesses can get personalized suggestions about inventory.
When food businesses get accurate stock level suggestions and market associations, it will directly impact a better food waste management system.

Bridge Between Multiple Parties

Another key role of mobile apps in food waste management systems is to build bridges between multiple parties. With parties, we are referring to government organizations, NGOs, food recycling companies, restaurants, retailers, and others included in the food supply chain.

When there is good waste, the lack of communication between the supplier and consumer remains a top challenge. However, with mobile apps, parties can communicate flawlessly. For example, a restaurant with food waste can connect with the nearest government organization or NGO and hand over the food waste for some positive usage.

Contribution to Reducing the Hunger Index

When the overall goal of building an excellent food waste management system is achieved, the overall contribution to reducing hunger increases. Mobile apps can deliberately reduce the hunger index by connecting with NGOs that supply food to needy people.

Increased Transparency at the Top Management Level

Monitoring is another challenge associated with the food waste management system. For example, employees working in a restaurant just dispose of the food outside. Animals eating the disposed food are at risk of diseases. Foul smells further impact the environment. And all that happens without proper information to the top management level owning the business. With mobile apps, the top management level can get reports about how the wasted food is reused.

Key Features To Add To Your Waste Management App

Whether you are an entrepreneur planning to build a food waste management app for multiple parties or a government organization, there are certain key features that you should not miss adding. With these key features, you can amplify your success probability rate. Here are the key features to add to your waste management app:

Food Stock Forecast and Suggestions

A section that works by integrating data analytics. When you input the inventory and related data, the app will automatically analyze the forecast for waste. It will also compare the added inventory with the market fluctuation to study the food demand for the specified period.

Instant Messaging

We talked about communication bridges in the previous section. And communication is made possible through the instant messaging feature. For instance, restaurants can connect with food recycling companies or NGOs through instant messaging and schedule waste pickup.

Real-time Location

Integration of maps is a key component of a food waste management application. Delivery partners working on the picks and deliveries can see the locations in real-time to avoid any route-related hustles. Also, entities involved in the process will be able to track the progress efficiently and effectively.

Video Playback

A food waste management app should include a video playback feature. These videos will act as tutorials for parties involved in the food business about reducing food waste. Chefs can analyze and modify the recipes to reduce waste.

Vision AI

Artificial intelligence can further enhance the productivity of your application. Features like vision AI can use camera hardware on smartphones to capture pictures of food items. These pictures will further go through an intelligent screening with the aim of identifying possible waste and making suggestions to reduce waste.

Read More: AI in Mobile App Development: Explanation, Examples and Benefits

Tracking Dashboard For Top Management

A dashboard with intelligent data analytics can serve as a report for the top management level in the food business. Authorities can view how much food was wasted, saved, and shared with food utilization organizations.

Expiration Reminder for Inventory

For wholesalers, this feature can be very helpful. Through push notifications, food waste management apps can deliver notifications to wholesalers in case any of their items are nearing the expiration date. This further improves the user experience for the customers, considering their health and safety.

Top Food Waste Management App Ideas To Refer To

If you are researching food waste management apps or planning to build a super app, then we have some top food waste management app references. You can explore them, hire professional food app developers, and plan your app development project.

• Too Good to Go: The aim of the app is to make a positive impact on the environment and save money on food. Users can discover surplus food at discounted prices from retailers.
• Olio: A local sharing app for passing on food items for people who do not require them or have bought them in surplus.
• Food Cloud: The app commits to ensuring that home chefs serve the safest food to eat for customers. Nush is a tracking app where customers can keep track of what has been lying in their fridge or inventory and for how long to eliminate expired foods.

Cost of Building a Food Waste Management App

So now that we have covered solving the food waste challenge in detail with a mobile app, you must be wondering about the cost of food waste management app development. There are certain factors involved in determining the cost of app development. The cost never remains fixed, and you have to consult a digital transformation company to explore the costing part. Yet for an estimate part it can range from $40,000 to $200,000.

How can RipenApps Help You Solve Challenges in Food Waste Management?

To convert your food waste management app idea into a digital product, you have to hire a team of dedicated app developers with strong expertise. We at RipenApps have a decade of market knowledge about the food industry, where we have studied and worked on the latest trends like AI and ML.
Further, we have the complete app development requirements fully covered under one roof, keeping your overall coasting effective. Finally, our after-service support will ensure that your application runs smoothly and is updated with all the latest requirements to go on for years.

Read one of our case studies: Hanchens is India’s revolutionary food ordering app, serving thousands of flavours.