ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Crunching the data to keep the carrots perfectly crunchy
Anyone who thinks the future is arriving too fast should check the "sell-by" dates on the fresh food they buy. This is one of the categories of consumer purchases with the highest wastage rates in the world - and least reliant on hi-tech controls. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, about a third of the food produced for human consumption every year - about 1.3trillion kilograms - gets lost or wasted. Most of the organisations forced to absorb such losses spend tremendous energy on tightening up their supply chains but little on advanced technology. That is about to change, led not by businesses that understand food specifically, but by those that understand how to use technology to optimise the supply chain. "When someone like Amazon gets into the food business, brick-and-mortar stores have to pay attention," said Jeff Brown, a vice-president of Dell Technologies and head of its Internet of Things division. "They have to improve the customer experience, and they ...
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