A new artificial intelligence-enabled logistics network designed to move surplus food more efficiently across the UK is being opened up to the wider industry, in a move its backers say could transform the economics of charitable redistribution.
Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer have all signed up to the scheme, which uses spare capacity on delivery lorries to transport surplus food to frontline charities rather than sending additional vehicles on the road. The projec...
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t is being led by the Alliance Food Sourcing coalition, which was formed to help retailers respond to the King’s call for a step change in surplus food redistribution.
According to The Grocer, the initiative was first trialled by Sainsbury’s earlier this year in partnership with logistics specialist GXO. It has since been developed into a wider network, with Sainsbury’s, Tesco, M&S, Greencore and Gist now involved in what the coalition describes as a central “mission control” system. The platform matches food that needs moving with trucks already scheduled to travel around the country, reducing the need for extra mileage, fuel and cost.
Nicky Robinson, director of the AFS coalition, told The Grocer the project was a “game-changer” for food redistribution and said it could take a significant chunk out of the £5.6m that Felix currently spends on logistics. The charity is the result of the merger between FareShare and The Felix Project, both of which have long been major recipients of surplus food from retailers and manufacturers.
The scale of the pilot appears to support those claims. AFS said the Sainsbury’s trial alone is expected to move 5,300 tonnes of food in six months, while cutting 42,885 road miles, avoiding 62.9 tonnes of carbon emissions and generating £170,000 in savings. The wider rollout is now being positioned as a route to saving food charity leaders more than £1m a year in transport costs.
Robinson said the system also gives retailers and manufacturers much clearer visibility over the amount of surplus they are generating. Part of the service includes a scorecard that tracks how much food each company has delivered to charities, adding a layer of accountability to a process that has traditionally been fragmented and inefficient.
Richard Smith, director of food innovation at Felix, said transport costs already run into millions of pounds a year and have risen sharply since the conflict in Iran. Speaking to The Grocer, he said the prospect of the technology delivering such large savings was “phenomenal”.
The backdrop to the rollout is stark. The Food Foundation estimates that eight million people in the UK are going hungry, including 2.1 million children, while many food charities say they remain unable to meet demand. Earlier this year, following a summit at Downing Street, the government set out plans for a national programme aimed at tripling charitable food redistribution over the next decade.
For the retailers involved, the collaboration also signals a rare degree of cooperation between major rivals in an area where commercial competition is usually intense. Yet the scale of the challenge, and the waste that still accompanies the UK food system, appears to be forcing a more pragmatic approach. If the network performs as promised, it could provide a model for moving surplus food faster, cheaper and with far less environmental cost than the current patchwork of arrangements.
Source: Noah Wire Services
