DIRECT Commercialisation
The challenge
Australia currently wastes $20 billion of food each year, and addressing food waste is now seen as a major environmental and economic opportunity for industry. To address the opportunity businesses need to understand where food loss and waste occurs, such at harvest, post-harvest, processing or distribution (food loss), or at retail, food service or by consumers (food waste). From such an understanding, better business decisions can be made.
The development of a business-ready, digital, cloud-based food waste tool can assist industry to reduce food loss and waste. The tool should integrate with their current data, systems, and processes, and operate at global standards/protocols of assessing food loss and waste.
Our plan
The next stage of the project will:
- take the excel version of DIRECT and develop it as an online version
- provide enhancements to data capture and reporting, eg link with global standards/ protocols, extra financial data analysis and expanding DIRECT across all stages of the supply chain
- create an online portal so that DIRECT can be accessed as a cloud-based application that will interact with other business systems.
- pilot the new DIRECT online tool with industry
- commercialise the DIRECT online version through Empauer.
As this project progresses and achieves its milestones, we’ll share the good news on this page by adding information, links, images, interviews and more.
Information
Timeline
August 2019 – July 2023
Project Leader
Students
Roland Somlai, PhD student