Human Milk Foundation UK – REAMIT Project
Company Name
Human Milk Foundation, UK
Funding Source
Interreg North West Europe (European Regional Development Fund)
Project Name
REAMIT (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors)
Company Profile
Human Milk Foundation (HMF) (https://humanmilkfoundation.org/) is a charity organisation founded in 2017 in United Kingdom, which delivers donor breast milk to babies in need – often in life-saving circumstances. It’s cold chain supply transports milk between houses, hospitals, and its storage hubs. The charity must adhere to strict guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to ensure the quality and safety of the human milk. Their vision is to build nationwide services that can provide equitable access to donor human milk, where breastfeeding is impossible or taking time to establish.
How IMaR Delivered Solution For Industry
The REAMIT project aims to save 1.8Mt of food waste or €3B per year in North-West Europe and prevent 5.5Mt/yr of CO2 emissions. Along with MTU (IMaR), the project involves a consortium of food and technology organisations and universities. The project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe. It has so far worked with a range of businesses in the UK and North-West Europe to adapt IoT and Big Data technologies to best fit the needs of the food supply chain management system. The supply chain includes farms, packaging sites, food processors, distribution, logistics, wholesalers, and retailers.
By using technology to continuously monitor and record food quality in real time, the REAMIT pilot companies aim to achieve zero food waste and assure product quality. HMF is one such participating organization where pilot test projects have been deployed to help the organization to continuously monitor and record milk transportation conditions in real time, to achieve zero food wastage and ensure high quality of milk is being delivered.
As part of the pilot test, the sensors were placed in the insulated transport boxes – the temperature and humidity of the milk were collected every 30 minutes, while the GPS locator sent data every two minutes. Alerts were sent if the milk temperature rose above a specified threshold. This has allowed the charity to minimise potential wastage of an already limited stock and reduce carbon emissions by saving energy through the optimisation of cooling during transportation. This is the first-time data has been collected on the transportation of donor human milk and is helping the charity to plan the location of future hubs.
The company could clearly observe the benefits obtained from deploying the REAMIT based technologies. Dr Natalie Shenker, who is the co-founder of HMF said:
Human Milk Foundation, UK
Funding Source
Interreg North West Europe (European Regional Development Fund)
Project Name
REAMIT (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors)
Company Profile
Human Milk Foundation (HMF) (https://humanmilkfoundation.org/) is a charity organisation founded in 2017 in United Kingdom, which delivers donor breast milk to babies in need – often in life-saving circumstances. It’s cold chain supply transports milk between houses, hospitals, and its storage hubs. The charity must adhere to strict guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to ensure the quality and safety of the human milk. Their vision is to build nationwide services that can provide equitable access to donor human milk, where breastfeeding is impossible or taking time to establish.
How IMaR Delivered Solution For Industry
The REAMIT project aims to save 1.8Mt of food waste or €3B per year in North-West Europe and prevent 5.5Mt/yr of CO2 emissions. Along with MTU (IMaR), the project involves a consortium of food and technology organisations and universities. The project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe. It has so far worked with a range of businesses in the UK and North-West Europe to adapt IoT and Big Data technologies to best fit the needs of the food supply chain management system. The supply chain includes farms, packaging sites, food processors, distribution, logistics, wholesalers, and retailers.
By using technology to continuously monitor and record food quality in real time, the REAMIT pilot companies aim to achieve zero food waste and assure product quality. HMF is one such participating organization where pilot test projects have been deployed to help the organization to continuously monitor and record milk transportation conditions in real time, to achieve zero food wastage and ensure high quality of milk is being delivered.
As part of the pilot test, the sensors were placed in the insulated transport boxes – the temperature and humidity of the milk were collected every 30 minutes, while the GPS locator sent data every two minutes. Alerts were sent if the milk temperature rose above a specified threshold. This has allowed the charity to minimise potential wastage of an already limited stock and reduce carbon emissions by saving energy through the optimisation of cooling during transportation. This is the first-time data has been collected on the transportation of donor human milk and is helping the charity to plan the location of future hubs.
The company could clearly observe the benefits obtained from deploying the REAMIT based technologies. Dr Natalie Shenker, who is the co-founder of HMF said:
“The REAMIT team have provided everything from proof of concept to the innovative sensors that we’re using, that not only track temperature but are able to track humidity, acceleration, they can tell when the boxes will be actively moving—so we can really understand where the milk is, what conditions the milk is transported in and when it’s arrived.”
