New AI food waste project aims to deliver 1.5 million meals
Sustainable Ventures leads an AI-driven project to connect food producers, logistics, and charities.
A major new initiative backed by Innovate UK is bringing together leading businesses and organisations to develop an AI-powered food redistribution platform designed to reduce edible food waste and support communities facing food insecurity.
The project is supported by a £1.9 million grant from the BridgeAI programme and is match-funded by participating partners.
Led by Sustainable Ventures, the collaboration includes Bristol Superlight, FareShare, FuturePlus, Google Cloud, Howard Tenens Logistics, Nestlé UK & Ireland, and Zest (formerly The Wonki Collective).
Together, they aim to pilot a platform capable of redistributing up to 700 tonnes of quality surplus food—equivalent to 1.5 million meals—while preventing an estimated 1,400 tonnes of CO₂ emissions and delivering up to £14 million in cost savings.
The system integrates Google Cloud’s BigQuery and Vertex AI platforms to match surplus food from manufacturers with logistics providers and charities.
Bristol Superlight’s logistics solution incorporates AI to track food quality during delivery, and early trials have shown promising results—an 87% reduction in food waste at a Nestlé factory over just two weeks.
The pilot marks a significant step forward in applying AI to address sustainability challenges. The consortium believes the technology could eventually scale across the food supply chain, helping to create a more efficient, transparent, and environmentally responsible system.
Leaders from Nestlé, FareShare, and Zest all emphasised the importance of cross-sector collaboration in tackling rising food waste and food poverty.
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