SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The opportunity to tackle a widespread industry challenge is coming, as April 28 is Stop Food Waste Day, and Afresh is aiding its partners by using artificial intelligence to optimize the fresh food supply chain and reduce food waste.

With Afresh’s current customers alone—which include partners such as WinCo, Heinen's, and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market—the company has been able to prevent 4.7 million pounds of food waste since its inception, according to a press release. Afresh’s first produce is the first AI-powered, store-level ordering solution that caters to the complexity of fresh produce, allowing its partners to not only minimize food waste, but increase profits and create a better customer experience.

As 31 percent of food waste happens at the retail and consumer levels, Afresh helps to reduce waste and lessen its environmental impact by decreasing waste from grocery produce departments by 25 percent, thus lessening environmental impact. 

The company also optimizes its fresh forecasting to help its customers increase their topline margins by 2–4 percent  and operating margins by up to 50 percent. In addition, the industry partner helps to automate repetitive tasks, allowing store associates to have time to focus on more important tasks.

Since partnering with Afresh, Heinen’s has seen $1 million in annualized savings and 70 bps reduction in shrink.

To read about more pivotal innovations within the fresh produce sector, keep clicking on AndNowUKnow.

Afresh