Zest Fresh Differentiation

Suppliers and retailers are facing increased competition and reduced margins. They’re looking for ways to reduce fresh food waste and improve operations. Zest Fresh is the first solution to combine and harness the power of autonomously collected IoT sensor data with SaaS-based predictive analytics and machine learning to improve business decision making, reduce waste and improve profitability.

Different from Other Approaches

Other approaches to address food waste have come to the market but they don’t solve the problem at its source, or they create more complexity across the supply chain.

Coatings

  • Can help extend shelf-life on some types of produce, most commonly avocados. They are not feasible for many types of produce such as leafy greens.
  • Are impractical for applying to field-packed produce such as strawberries, lettuces or specialty crops as it requires a costly labor-intensive change to the field harvesting process.
  • Do not provide information about the actual remaining shelf-life.

Hyperspectral Imaging and Photo Analytics

  • May be able to tell you the current condition of the produce but not the previous history, handling or rate of aging.
  • Doesn’t provide the product’s remaining shelf-life, only have a snapshot of the current condition of the produce.
  • Is difficult to use for field-packed products such as berries or leafy greens.

Pulping and Visual Inspection

  • Identify only lagging indicators of freshness. Visual cues of spoilage occur late in the supply chain, too late to do anything about preventing waste.
  • Is a manual, labor intensive and error-prone process.

Controlled Atmospheres

  • Can be helpful for ethylene sensitive products or fruits held in cold storage for extended periods of time.
  • Don’t tell you the condition or freshness of the produce.
  • Can be expensive and increase supply chain complexity.

Get the Power of Data and Insights

None of these approaches address the cause of waste: the impact of time and temperature on the produce from the moment it is harvested. Most of the impact on freshness or shelf-life occurs within the first 48 hours after harvest when there are issues with cut-to-cool time, pre-cool efficiency or handling. A pallet waiting several hours to be cooled can lose days of shelf-life.

Zest Fresh is the Solution that Prevents Waste

Zest Fresh accurately predicts the dynamic remaining shelf-life of the produce to ensure each pallet is shipped with sufficient freshness to meet the retailer’s requirements – reducing or eliminating waste.

Zest Fresh can be used for all types of fruits and vegetables – from berries to leafy greens and specialty crops, whether they’re packed in the field or at the packing house. And Zest Fresh doesn’t impact the workflow of the post-harvest supply chain as data collection and analysis is autonomous.

Zest Fresh can be used in conjunction with shelf-life extension approaches described above to know what that “extended shelf-life” value is or be used in controlled environment containers and provide growers, suppliers and retailers with the freshness insights they need to prevent waste at its source.

“I’ve been working in the dark all along, and Zest turned on a light so I can now see freshness.”

– Blackberry Grower QA Manager

qa-manager

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