Given the state of the world it’s hardly the most pressing of problems.
But amid all the doom and gloom there may be a ray of sunshine for some supermarket shoppers.
For three of the biggest chains are bringing in state-of-the-art technology to end the frustration of guessing just when your selected avocado is going to be ripe enough to eat.
Customers will be able to simply pick up an item – such as an avocado or mango – and put it under a machine that scans it with an infrared beam.
In under a second, a screen above will flash up with a score out of a 100 revealing how ripe it is and the number of days until it goes off.
Dutch company OneThird says its invention will stop the huge levels of food waste that cost retailers and consumers billions of pounds every year.
The ‘ripeness checker’ will be used for soft, exotic, and stone fruit and vegetables, which are particularly prone to spoilage.
The machine will measure the product’s water, sugar, and starch content. Sophisticated artificial intelligence then compares the information against hundreds of thousands of other examples on its database and sees how similar items fared.
Three of the biggest chains are bringing in state-of-the-art technology to help customers see when fruit is ripe – stopping them from going around squeezing the fresh produce
Customers will be able to simply pick up an item – such as an avocado or mango – and put it under a machine that scans it with an infrared beam (Stock photo)
The accuracy of the machine – which is expected to be able to predict the shelf life of ten different fruit and vegetables by the end of the year – depends on what is being tested.
For avocados, a score will appear on the screen from zero to 100 – with those registering more than 70 likely to go off in four to five days. While those in the mid-range around two to three days.
However, for strawberries the machine will be able to narrow its estimate down to a day.
OneThird founder Marco Snikkers told the Daily Mail he was in talks with three major British retailers to install the machines, though he would not name them.
But he did say that all were already using the machines in their supply chains.
OneThird is named after the amount of food that goes to waste every year. Around 40 per cent of this is fresh produce – largely due to spoilage. The device is ready to work with avocados, tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries.
The company also has plans of extending the scanner’s use to grapes, bananas, mangoes and raspberries.
Mr Snikkers said: ‘The astronomical volume of food that goes to waste each year is heartbreaking, particularly since so much is wasted in affluent countries.
‘We’ve worked hard to create technology that helps to address this persistent, global challenge which directly impacts food scarcity.’
