Revolutionary meals Enterprises.
According to FAO, food waste costs $680B in industrialized countries & $310B in developing countries (30-40% of Food with short expiry end up in landfills; that contributes to another disaster; production of food already is responsible for a quarter of global CO2 emissions- The Gases from decomposing landfills further aggravates the carbon footprint. We team up with food retailers with Electronic pricing labels, apply the pricing model to food products based on how quickly its set to expire, use our algorithm to adjust an item’s price in real-time, according to its expiration date-The sooner its set to expire, the cheaper it will be, the faster its bought out of the shelves & the more meals become available without going back to the farms to replace expired foods.
We are+ 7B people on this planet, of which 1Billion are starving. Yet we annually lose/waste 1.3 billion tons of food (one third) – enough to feed 3 billion people. About 50% of the 1.3B tones wasted/lost comes from supermarket food stores/Groceries.
The sell-by or best before date/label doesn't necessarily imply expiry/not edible come that date; but end up in landfills afterall, causing further starvation & demand for more food, more GHGs as we replenish the lost food; Ultimately agriculture contribute less to inclusive economic/social development & slowing SDGs 1, 2,3 & 12; BUT Food losses & waste amounts to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries & accounts for 4.4 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)/year: we engage countless greenhouses/ lots of fossil based energy/labor /water /fertilizers to produce food then we proceed to waste/discard 1.3 Billion tons = whose economic equivalence is a whopping US$990B = only to proceed to allow it to inject 4.4 Gigatones of Green House Gases as these waste decompose or graded down using more energy. This is in addition to the fact that production of food already is responsible for 25% of global CO2 emissions.
Our real-time pricing algorithm & tracking eliminates food waste at the grocery store; it’s applicable for short expiry foodstuffs to rescue near expiry/ yet good foods & avail it to the majority at the BOP than to be discarded.
We team up with food stores/retailers/groceries to apply the pricing model based on how quickly they are set to expire. Using electronic pricing labels (which most Food stores have), the algorithm adjusts an item’s price in real-time, according to its expiration date. The sooner its set to expire, the cheaper it will be. The dynamic pricing engine is based on machine learning principles and takes into account several variables of information about a product (expiration date, shelf capacity, regional factors, brand strength, on-shelf competition etc.) when calculating the adjusted price. Prices are then displayed on electronic shelf labels (or online checkouts in the near future), where consumers can see the product’s regular price as well as a discounted price for a specific expiration date. The technology integrates with other aspects of a store’s operations like inventory management and point-of-sale software to enable the store manage product volume as it recaptures lost revenue opportunities like food waste cost and out-of-stock costs.
77% of East Africa Community of 250 million are at the BOP living under $5.00PPP: These are largely our target beneficiaries. During the pilot, 4,232kg of food was rescued towards their sell-by date just from 2 stores; that equaled 7,100 meals sold at 40-50% less of the initial cost directly benefited 2,000 families living on under $5ppp/day. The algorithm simply adjusted various food items downwards to 40-50% cheaper 2-3 days to sell-by, coupled with just 1 day of information via a local vernacular Radio station, hundreds of customers from a close range densely populated urban slum (who earlier couldn’t afford the initial selling price) including Schools & Children’ homes feeding programs Administrators trooped in to but all of the food stuffs within 48 hours & came back demanding for more opportunities like that. Supermarkets won, Farmers won, suppliers won, the consumers won & our Revolutionary meals concept won big time as the margin earned was divided pro Rata within the chain of participants as always:- Contrary to the money losses that could have been the case were the foods removed from the shelves and taken to the landfills.
- Improve supply chain practices to reduce food loss, scale new business models for producer-market connections, and create low-carbon cold chains
First, our model makes food more affordable, accessible and available for all. We firmly believe that all the food chain players from farm to folk need to and must stay sustainable; and so rather than 100% Food Banks or Charities that benefit the end beneficiary BUT hurts the Farmer/producer, we believe We a cannot neglect the sustainability of trade systems while negotiating agreements that ensures each food chain player who did put in some resources gets a small rightful compensation incurred while producing food even though it’s sold at 60-70% less towards expiry. A win-Win-Win.
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community
- A new technology
We combine 3 innovations in one Technology; 1st, RFID sensing helps supermarkets capture a more accurate & real-time picture of their inventory (usually done by a manual inventory accounting) better than Barcodes. So once the supermarket knows how products are moving compared to supply/demand, we can identify the products that are most at risk of being thrown away.
Second, the dynamic pricing creates an otherwise lacking incentive for shoppers to purchase products that are nearing expiration dates by creating a dynamic & appealing product price and offering products to people who couldn’t afford them before. Many folks believe that food product dating reflects whether the product is safe to eat or not. In reality, the dates are merely used at the B2B level to share information about how long a retailer should display the product.
Third, the electronic shelf labeling system replaces the dated paper labeling system, making the process of updating prices much quicker & more efficient to accomplish, displays both the current price & the estimated price of the product at a future date. This allows consumers to decide whether they want to pay full price or come back at a later time to snag that item at a reduced cost.
There are some inventory management technologies out there — even hardware coming out to help with shelf auditing like robots that hang out in the aisle and track product levels; but our core differentiator is that we offer both dynamic pricing & inventory management.
We combine 3 Technologies actually, RFID (radio frequency identification) sensing, a dynamic pricing equation, and electronic shelf labeling technology.
First, RFID sensing helps supermarkets capture a more accurate and real-time picture of their inventory (usually done by a manual inventory accounting). Barcodes were developed in the early 1970s but they don’t track products. Today, supermarkets don’t know how many products they have on the shelf unless someone does a manual check. So once the supermarket knows how products are moving compared to supply and demand, we can identify the products that are most at risk of being thrown away.
Second, the dynamic pricing creates an otherwise lacking incentive for shoppers to purchase products that are nearing or past their expiration dates. The formula relies on various factors, including expiration date, supply and demand, location, the day of the week, and holidays to create a dynamic and appealing product price.
Third, the electronic shelf labeling system replaces the dated paper labeling system, making the process of updating prices much quicker and more efficient to accomplish. Our technology displays both the current price and the estimated price of the product at a future date and time. This allows consumers to decide whether they want to pay full price or come back at a later time to snag that item at a reduced cost.
To demonstrate proof of concept, We teamed up with a leading food retailer late last year. The conclusive data collected 4 months later indicated that the technology was able to slash one-third of food waste from a leading food retailer’s supermarkets, while producing a 12.6% increase in revenue. Simply put; 4,232kg of additional food was rescued towards their sell-by date just from 2 stores; that equaled 7,100 meals. Salvaging 7,100 good meals to be sold at 40-50% less of the initial cost directly benefits 2,000 families living on under $5ppp/day. Quantitatively, we expect this aggregate to be the average in the targeted stores. In East Africa alone, we have close to 400 major food retail selling points. The pilot which provided us with highly conclusive results, was summarized in detail in a case study that we published was part of the scientific study conducted.
As the data show, While food retail stores are the core customer, many food manufacturers are interested in tapping into the Food & cost-saving technology because mostly retailers return unsold food to manufacturers when it hits its expiration date hence the supermarket doesn’t bear the price burden of unsold food.
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Imaging and Sensor Technology
- Internet of Things
- Software and Mobile Applications
Many food manufacturers are interested in tapping into our cost-saving technology. Over 95% of retailers return unsold food to manufacturers upon hitting the expiration date, which means the supermarket doesn’t bear the price burden of unsold food. Moreover, 70% of the sales of pilot products were sold when consumers had a choice between a discounted product with a shorter expiration (i.e., price generated by our pricing engine) and the same product for its full price and a longer expiration. In two-thirds of cases where consumers were faced with a choice, they chose the discounted product.
Of these instances, when consumers had two price points to choose from and opted for the full-priced product, 45% of the time they didn’t actually choose the longest expiration date available on the shelf; Probably meaning they were indifferent toward the new pricing system, or they simply didn’t notice. This revealed that consumers exhibited a variety of attitudes in the store; 70% wanted short expiration dates at a cheaper price, and of the 30% who did not, 55% chose the product with the longest expiration date available whereas 45% chose the product with a middle expiration date, while still paying full price.
The pilot confirmed the presence of a clear customer preference toward discounted products, even with shorter expiration dates, to full product prices with longer expiration dates, when both pricing options were available on the shelf. Similarly, we integrated with the retailer's POS system to receive all transaction information relating to the products included in the pilot. When a participating product was purchased, the POS system would pop up with expiration-date options for the cashier to choose from. Based on the chosen date, the correct price for the product was applied.
The system allowed the retailer to track its inventory for each product per expiration date, as well as the sales data. As part of the pilot, the retailer's employees on-boarded new products arriving daily at the store( quantity & expiration date), edited the inventory data in real time, deducting any expired or defective products that were removed from the store’s inventory.
- Peri-Urban
- Urban
- Poor
- Low-Income
- Middle-Income
- Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons
- Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
- Persons with Disabilities
- 1. No Poverty
- 2. Zero Hunger
- 3. Good Health and Well-Being
- 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
- 9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
- 10. Reduced Inequalities
- 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
- 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
- 13. Climate Action
- Kenya
- Ethiopia
- Rwanda
- Tanzania
- Uganda
We currently serve 60,000, we will be serving 500,000 in 1 year and 25 million in 5 years.
Our focus is global; gradually from Kenya, we keep a keen eye to establish partners in the sustainably-minded and larger US & the European market. Many countries have shown a greater sensitivity toward food-related causes like reducing waste. One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals aims to reduce global food waste 50% by 2030 , in February 2016 France became the first country to legally prohibit supermarkets from tossing out unsold food, requiring them to donate it to food banks and charities instead. In August 2016, Italy enacted a measure that makes it easier for stores to donate unsold food.
In brief, there is massive potential in many countries as nearly all will be ready to welcome the technology in line with the desire to achieve SDGs 2,12,13 and 17. But At this stage, our focus is mainly about implementation because this is an industry that is only now learning what high-tech is, so it’s a lot about adapting our newer solutions with older solutions and making it seamless as opposed to only innovating.
The main challenges involve human error during the product onboarding process and the checkout process. The errors can however be eliminated with full POS (Point of Sale) integration, because initially, not all POS features are integrated. Additionally, implementing key improvements in product onboarding will be crucial to eliminate any onboarding errors. Another good alternative solution would be to implement the system alongside GS1 DataBar or other data encompassing labels popularly referred to as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to the products monitored by the system. The data bars or labels would eliminate any onboarding issues and create a flawless checkout process.
Overall, we are working tirelessly on developing the hardware and process for tagging each item with an RFID identifier. This involves the tagging gun we created that makes the process very simple because it’s not applicable by hand; the process of actually tagging the items is the potential reason why there hasn’t been success by other companies. Considering that supermarket retail is a relatively low-tech industry, getting stores to integrate the technology seamlessly and efficiently also presents some hurdles. As for the future, we are targeting supermarkets throughout the globe, including North America and Europe. We believe the dynamic pricing and RFID tracking technology will be the future of supermarket retails guaranteeing Zero Food waste.
- For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
N/A
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All of us have had impressive past few years of social entrepreneurial journey, we’ve gathered significant and diverse collection of highly-relevant experiences and skills to the concept that we believe in. Blessed with Love & passion for a sustainable world with Zero Food Waste; Armed With invaluable insights about the underlying issues & experience, we are confident of our ability to relay direction passionately, we very easily range from leaders to apprentices, we relate to a wide array of people & we’ve learnt to operate in multicultural/lingual setups purposely to make the concepts we believe in to resonate. We have the determination to gather resources/partners/like minded achievers to deliver this all-new technology to delight nostalgic and new generations of believers in ending food wastage.
Foremost we are a social enterprise and intend to remain so, The intention or end result for Revolutionary meals isn’t to make lots of money or generate high financial ROI for investors but rather to generate very high social impact in so far as more nutritious and very affordable foods to more families in the US$5.00 PPP are to be concerned as well as the most positive environmental or ecological impacts in so far as Global warming and climate change are concerned. Therefore in summary The innovation creates a vibrant new market to serve the aforementioned customers at scale; The three key practical strategies incorporated by the social enterprise are:
a). A Small margin x large volume = An attractive bottom line margins to sustain our operations and wages.
b). Its Designed for radical affordability. The products & distribution strategy are designed for the other 77%; are affordable enough for people at the US$5.00PPP but more importantly generates income and therefore purposed to be sustainable.
c). A model platform and technology backed profitable last-mile supply chains to densely urban/suburban villages in East Africa.
- Organizations (B2B)
we believe we have a game changing solution to help the world achieve progress towards food security, food waste elimination, more food to feed the growing generations without hurting our planet ecologically. For this reason we wish to bring it to the attention of the world and appropriate partners to enable us advance together for the good of all of us.
- Product/service distribution
- Funding and revenue model
- Board members or advisors
N/A
Organizations, individuals, investors, funders who subscribe and align to our mission.
75% of the ultimate beneficiaries of our technology are women.
This technology and all its applications use machine learning to benefit humanity at large.
We shall impact millions of people positively as we end the global challenge of food waste , climate change and global warming out of agricultural activities and enable more families to feed on good food which otherwise could have been thrown away to landfills.