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.
Information
Timeline
August 2019 – July 2023
Project Leader
Dr Simon Lockrey – RMIT
Students
Roland Somlai, PhD student