Bakery

LOWINFOOD implementations in the bakery value chain

LOWINFOOD commitment in the bakery value chain

LOWINFOOD aims to reduce the waste of bread in the supply chain, from bakeries where the bread is produced to supermarkets and bakery shops, where the bread is purchased by consumers.

The planned work plan includes promoting and arranging meetings among stakeholders at different supply chain levels (suppliers/retailers) to facilitate dialogue and develop guidelines and new agreements for a more efficient bread distribution model. Besides, software of smart food analytics to help reduce inefficiencies in bakeries significantly will be tested, demonstrated and boosted.

Innovations being tested and improved in LOWINFOOD for the bread value chain

5-Bread supplier-retailer agreement

Innovative supplier/retailer agreements for bakery products

The efficiency of new business models for bread supply will be demonstrated, in order to reduce bread waste in the supplier/retailer interface. In fact, the supplier/retailer interface is a crucial hotspot of food waste in the bakery sector, partly due to take-back agreements, which lead to overproduction and inefficient logistics. The new business models will be designed based on a shared understanding among actors participating in the action.

The stakeholder dialogue to reduce bread waste was implemented in Italy (Viterbo and Civitavecchia regions), Finland and Sweden. Read below the summary of the work made so far in this regard.

6-Stakeholder dialogue bakery

Stakeholder dialogue to develop guidelines against food loss and waste

Innovative supplier/retailer interactions will be established to overcome issues affecting the quantity of bread wasted at retail stores and bakeries, such as lack of communication, inefficient organisation, unfair commercial practices, etc. Establishing collaboration among suppliers and retailers will facilitate mutual benefits from reducing bread waste.

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In Italy, the innovation was implemented in the northern part of the Lazio Region. The case study is based on 12 small-scale bakeries, mainly located in the Viterbo province, involved by UNITUS researchers and the Italian Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium Enterprises (CNA) of Viterbo and Civitavecchia.

The innovation consisted of a series of structured discussions where the involved bakers could discuss together the problem of bread lost and waste and find a common strategy to reduce it. Additionally, each bakery branch assessed its surplus bread by using a daily diary (visit this news item to learn more about the process),

Following the outcomes and the proposal from each structured roundtable discussion with the bakeries and the information collected in the diary regarding the bread surplus management, several important upshots emerged.

In order to put in practice new solutions to improve the business of bakeries against food waste, the roadmap called “Una mano contro lo spreco” – “a hand against the waste” was developed. It contains five common actions that these bakeries committed to applying in the following months, which include both actions at the bakery level to mitigate and optimize the surplus of surplus products, together with actions at the institutional and consumer levels:

  1. Measure the daily surplus;
  2. Encourage daily orders to plan sales;
  3. Increase consumer awareness of the problem of waste by making ‘anti-waste’ activities recognizable;
  4. Encourage donations of the surplus for human consumption (through a collective organization) by reuse, use of apps, and/or donation to charities;
  5. Suggest collective actions against food waste at a municipal level (together with CNA).

In Finland, the roadmap outlining the actions to reduce bread waste was promoted through the Finnish Bakery Federation to their members through a webinar as well as in their magazine.

7-Optimization bakeries production

Software for optimization of bakeries’ production

FoodTracks delivers bakeries the best decisions every day for production, sales and staffing. This software revolutionizes controlling for the bakery sector. A cutting-edge technology with the age-old craftsmanship of baking bread, which helps bakeries become more efficient and save precious resources.

A training concept for apprentices and professionals has also been delivered to reduce food waste in the bakery sector. With a theoretical framework, some practical examples and case studies, this workbook aims to prepare bakery staff for the use of digital forecasting tools.
It is also available in German, clicking here

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FoodTracks was implemented in the spring of 2022 in three German bakeries, which are based in different regions within the country: Rheinland-Pfalz, Niedersachsen and Thüringen. They have been using FoodTracks for almost a year.

The innovation was implemented by the bakeries themselves with the technical and administrative support of FoodTracks. The implementation requires an attachment of FoodTracks to the ERP system of the respective bakeries, from which historic data was collected and evaluated by FoodTracks to propose prognoses for upcoming orders.

It has so far been observed that the implementation timeframe varies according to the specific order management of the bakeries. While the integration of FoodTracks was more complicated for one of the bakeries with decentralised order management, the bakeries with centralised order management had an easier implementation. It should be noted that the implementation requires good data quality within the order management of the respective bakeries.