App helps consumers buy good food at best price
© ornello_pics

App helps consumers buy food at best price

Smartphone users will soon be able to consult the FoodLoop app and find the best offers on food at supermarkets nearby. The system – made possible thanks to an EU-funded toolbox – informs users if a product is reduced in price because the ‘best before’ date is approaching.

It helps to save consumers money and reduce waste. Food close to expiry date is often thrown away by retailers, and, as a result, 90 million tonnes of edible food ends up in the rubbish annually in the EU. Now these products can be tagged with new ‘special offer’ barcodes, and FoodLoop’s users will be informed in real time.

Speaking about the retailers involved, FoodLoop founder Christoph Müller-Dechent said: “We have developed a system that allows them to mark down products whose ‘best before’ date is close, almost automatically through a connection to their enterprise resource planning system.”

Two full carts of fresh groceries are thrown away daily in every supermarket, amounting to almost €150,000 per year per store. “There are different reasons behind this waste,” said Müller-Dechent. “Why should you buy some milk that will stay less time in your fridge if it is the same price as a more recent one that you can keep longer? There should be some incentive for that.”

FoodLoop’s creators used tools provided by FI-WARE, an open cloud-based infrastructure to create new apps and services, which is part of the EU public private partnership on the Future Internet designed to help start-ups thrive in Europe.

Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, says: “I am happy FoodLoop is based on the building blocks provided by FI-WARE. The EU invested in one set of tools that can be used again and again to support other such great ideas. I expect to see even more innovative apps and services in the coming months: in September, €80m of EU money will be available for around 1,300 small businesses and web entrepreneurs using FI-WARE tools.”

FoodLoop will be launched soon in two bio supermarkets and a bakery around Bonn, Germany.