We currently grow enough food to feed the population twice over, yet more than two billion people experienced moderate or severe levels of food insecurity in 2019, equating to around 26.4% of the world’s population. It’s an unsustainable model at a time of elevated demand and digitization (like traceability systems etc) can manage the advocacy, source, and safety of food.

Jason Murphy is Managing Director, IoT Retail for IMS Evolve, a company whose technology for the past twenty years has helped food retailers change their refrigeration practices to extend stock shelf-life and increase the supply of perishable foods for consumption. It does this with a platform that automates and maintains commercial fridges and freezer systems by collecting and managing the vast volumes of data being generated. The technology is currently in use across as many as 20,000 sites globally.

Jason shares how supermarkets have adapted quickly during the pandemic to ensure the nation stays fed and how connected systems such as contactless payments, self-checkouts, and shop services have enabled social distancing without upgrades or extra staff.

We discuss how digital innovation, such as customer flow tracking and footfall analytics allow one-way and one-in-one-out policies to be rolled out efficiently; and how IoT connectivity across the ‘cold supply chain’ has meant stock levels remain high. Jason also talks about the rapid digitalization of the food supply chain - from agriculture all the way through the chain to the home, where wastage is excessive.