UK Digital Sandwich platform taps IoT, blockchain, AI technologies to digitise food retail supply chain
A UK government backed consortium of food manufacturers, technology specialists and academics have announced the launch of Digital Sandwich following a two-year development project.
The platform has been developed to connect primary production and supply chains to retail to provide traceability and provenance of ingredients whilst increasing manufacturing productivity, improving processes and reducing waste across the supply chain.
The project serves as a national demonstrator of a digital agri-food supply chain, using sandwich manufacturing as the use case.
Designed to be an open platform, it has established a digital supply chain that paves the way for a wider ecosystem network and offers a low barrier approach so that supply chain organisations of all sizes and technological maturity can participate.
The project extends the use of IoT, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to the ready-made food supply to ensure the traceability of every component ingredient in the supply chain – from primary production to retail.
The consortium of organisations behind the platform includes IMS Evolve, an IoT company; Raynor Foods, a sandwich supplier; University of Lincoln, University of Exeter, Digital Catapult, Sweetbridge, Crosspay, NetFoundry, INDUSTRIA Technology and R3.
It was backed by the UK government through its Innovate UK programme.
“The ability to use advanced technologies to irrefutably track ingredients in food, from primary production to retail, is going to be integral to maintaining public trust in the food system, reducing waste, and bringing one of the world’s most sophisticated supply chains into the digital age,” says Edward Porter, Director of IoT Solutions at retail technology experts, and consortium leaders, IMS Evolve.
“We are delighted to have been involved in the Digital Sandwich project as the lead partners in a consortium that has the potential to completely digitally transform almost any complex supply chain system.”
“This technology is designed to be open to organisations of all sizes across the supply chain meaning that anyone can benefit from the increased connectivity, productivity, food quality and safety and reduction in waste that the platform promises to deliver.”
“The Digital Sandwich demonstrates an impressive use case of this technology in the food retail supply chain, but the potential application of this solution spans across a wide range of different supply chain dependent sectors in the UK and beyond, and that makes it really exciting.” says Lord Wei, a member of the House of Lords involved in the Digital Sandwich consortium via Sweetbridge.
“We look forward to welcoming new partners into the fold as buyers and suppliers to benefit from lower costs, better financing, and less paperwork.”
“Thanks to the grant funding and the tireless work of the consortium, this project is ready not just to step up and transform the food retail and cold chain sectors, but to bring the benefits of digital transformation to a whole host of industries.”
Following the project’s completion, the consortium will look to introduce and expand the solution across the food supply chain, whilst establishing new use cases that leverage the technology’s flexibility to allow it to be used across other chains, with new possible sectors including the NHS or pharmaceuticals.
“The Digital Sandwich is the fusing of multiple innovative technologies to drive efficiencies and ultimately improve a critical sector in both the UK and worldwide economies,” says Simon Pearson, Professor of Agri-Food Technology at Lincoln University.
“This platform will combine and optimise the product chain and the value chain, leveraging the use of data to make smarter decisions both economically and for the environment.”
“We are delighted that years of hard work from the consortium have cumulated in the development of this transformative new technology that has so much promise for the food industry and beyond.”
“As one of the leading wholesale sandwich providers in the UK, we are delighted to be able to utilise this cutting edge technology to further improve the way that we procure and monitor ingredients, manufacture sandwiches and deliver excellence for consumers and customers,” says Tom Hollands, Innovation and Technical Director at Raynor Food.
“This is a ground-breaking and highly disruptive innovation that has created the foundations for a whole new virtual industry with the potential to transform not only the food industry but any manufacturing sector.”
“We are excited to be able to use this technology within our own business, and to see how it will transform other businesses and industries in the future.”
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