Addressing salad supply chains

Researchers from Cardiff University are teaming up with the world’s largest dedicated online grocery retailer to investigate the environmental and social implications of food waste.

The £50,000 project led by the Panalpina Centre for Manufacturing and Logistics Research, based in Cardiff Business School, will give the researchers unrivalled access to Ocado’s Salad supply chain.

In a bid to understand the scale of the organisation’s food waste, the team will develop a simulation model which can be used by Ocado to measure food waste periodically.

Of mutual benefit

Dr Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues, Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Operations Management at Cardiff Business School, said: “Collaborating with Ocado Group in this way offers us a unique opportunity to develop an innovative methodology to estimate the footprint of food waste.

“And as a result, I expect our research to generate findings of mutual benefit to industry and academia.”

Globally, the total amount of food waste in 2007 occupied almost 1.4 billion hectares, equal to approximately 28 percent of the world’s agricultural land area and costing approximately £500 million.

Dr Emrah Demir, Panalpina Associate Professor of Manufacturing and Logistics, added: “With access to an industry partner’s supply chains, myself and colleagues Dr Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues and Dr Xun Wang will be able to implement smart tools and methods which I’m confident will shed light on how food waste can be reduced.”

WRAP Cymru, the circular economy experts, will also be a part of the project WRAP works with UK governments, the EU and other funders to help deliver their policies on waste prevention and resource efficiency.