Fresh Food Industry Challenges

The fresh food supply chain, from harvest or production through to the retailer or restaurant, presents a wealth of fresh food industry challenges. Various factors can impact freshness, quality and food safetyof produce, meats, seafood, poultry and prepared foods:

  • Harvest and production conditions including temperature, cut-to-cool times, precool efficiency and warehousing.
  • Each type of produce or protein has unique traits and processingrequirements.
  • Transportation and handling variationsfrom the producer or supplier to the retailer or restaurant.

When not properly managed, these variables represent fresh food industry challenges including:

Food Waste


40 percent of the food we produce is never consumed and retailers waste 10 to 12 percent of fresh produce.

Reduced margins and customer satisfaction


Lost margins, reduced profitabilityand customer loyaltyare impactedwhen produce or proteins spoil prematurely becausethey run out of freshness.

Sustainability


Food waste has massive negative impacts on the environment and fresh food sustainability.Beyond contributing to land fill, energy, labor, fertilizer and other resources are wasted as food spoils prematurely and goes into landfills.

Zest Labs addresses Fresh Food Industry Challenges

Zest Labs is a post-harvest AgTech company with proven solutions for shelf-life and freshness management. Our solutions reduce food waste and improve operational efficiencies, product margins and profitability for growers, packers, shippers, processors, distributors, 3PLs, restaurants and grocers.

We are focused on addressing fresh food supply chain challengesby proactively solving the problems that lead to food waste. Our Zest Fresh for Produce,Zest Fresh for Protein and Zest Delivery solutions provide the members of the fresh food supply chain with the information and actionable insights they need to:

  • Optimize the fresh food supply chain operations to reduce waste.
  • Provide true transparency and supply chain visibilityfor food safety and authenticity.
  • Improve operational efficiency, labor and asset utilization and reduce costs.
  • Promote food and environmental sustainability.
  • Increase brand loyaltyand create competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Learn More

How Zest Labs helps address these fresh food industry challenges by clicking on the boxes below: