Yumchop Foods UK – REAMIT Project
Funding Source
Interreg North West Europe (European Regional Development Fund)
Company Profile
Yumchop foods (https://www.yumchop.co.uk/) is a company based in Northamptonshire, UK. They create authentic African meals that are free from any added preservatives, colouring or flavourings with responsibly sourced fresh ingredients, natural spices, and herbs. The business model is based on its frozen meals being transported and stored in public vending machines where hot food is delivered to customers using built-in microwave ovens. Yumchop was founded in 2016 in the UK. Today, Yumchop is a food manufacturing business specialising in frozen ready meals, prepared and served hot through automatic vending machines. Yumchop also provides a home delivery service via online purchase.
Project Name
REAMIT (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors)
How IMaR Delivered Solution For Industry
The REAMIT project (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors) 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 the team at MTU (IMaR group), the project involves a consortium of food and technology organisations and universities. The project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe.
The core aim of the project is to work 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. By using technology to continuously monitor and record food quality in real time, the REAMIT pilot test companies aim to achieve zero food waste and assure product quality. The supply chain includes farms, packaging sites, food processors, distribution, logistics, wholesalers, and retailers. Yumchop is one such participating company where pilot test projects are deployed to help the company to continuously monitor and record food storage and transportation conditions in real time, to achieve zero food wastage and ensure high food quality.
As part of the REAMIT project, sensors have been placed in the freezers in the production facility of Yumchop to ensure that the required legal temperature thresholds are adhered to, as well as preserving the high quality of the food in preparation for transport. The organisation has benefited from alerts which notify them of any temperature increase and allow staff to investigate and take immediate action – preventing any food waste and subsequent loss of revenue.
Based on experience and success achieved during the technology implementations in the Yumchop foods, the team at IMaR also published a research paper, titled “Adapting Digital Technologies to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Operational Efficiency of a Frozen Food Company—The Case of Yumchop Foods in the UK”, in open access peer-reviewed journal Sustainability (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16614) as co-author.
Following the success, Abi Adefisan, co-founder of Yumchop Foods, expressed desire to expand their use of the sensors. She said:
Interreg North West Europe (European Regional Development Fund)
Company Profile
Yumchop foods (https://www.yumchop.co.uk/) is a company based in Northamptonshire, UK. They create authentic African meals that are free from any added preservatives, colouring or flavourings with responsibly sourced fresh ingredients, natural spices, and herbs. The business model is based on its frozen meals being transported and stored in public vending machines where hot food is delivered to customers using built-in microwave ovens. Yumchop was founded in 2016 in the UK. Today, Yumchop is a food manufacturing business specialising in frozen ready meals, prepared and served hot through automatic vending machines. Yumchop also provides a home delivery service via online purchase.
Project Name
REAMIT (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors)
How IMaR Delivered Solution For Industry
The REAMIT project (Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimizing waste using big data and IoT sensors) 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 the team at MTU (IMaR group), the project involves a consortium of food and technology organisations and universities. The project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe.
The core aim of the project is to work 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. By using technology to continuously monitor and record food quality in real time, the REAMIT pilot test companies aim to achieve zero food waste and assure product quality. The supply chain includes farms, packaging sites, food processors, distribution, logistics, wholesalers, and retailers. Yumchop is one such participating company where pilot test projects are deployed to help the company to continuously monitor and record food storage and transportation conditions in real time, to achieve zero food wastage and ensure high food quality.
As part of the REAMIT project, sensors have been placed in the freezers in the production facility of Yumchop to ensure that the required legal temperature thresholds are adhered to, as well as preserving the high quality of the food in preparation for transport. The organisation has benefited from alerts which notify them of any temperature increase and allow staff to investigate and take immediate action – preventing any food waste and subsequent loss of revenue.
Based on experience and success achieved during the technology implementations in the Yumchop foods, the team at IMaR also published a research paper, titled “Adapting Digital Technologies to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Operational Efficiency of a Frozen Food Company—The Case of Yumchop Foods in the UK”, in open access peer-reviewed journal Sustainability (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16614) as co-author.
Following the success, Abi Adefisan, co-founder of Yumchop Foods, expressed desire to expand their use of the sensors. She said:
”It would be great to have the sensors in the vending kiosks to continue to monitor the quality of the products. We want to save our staff from manually going to the sites and taking the records, instead we could get the data in real time like we now do at the production facility.”
