00:00Could this technology help fix the world's colossal food waste problem?
00:04If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases
00:09on the planet, behind only the US and China.
00:14Research in apples shows a simple way to intervene.
00:18Once ripe, in Germany the picked fruit is usually kept in cold rooms for up to 12 months,
00:23but once the apples are in there, up to 1 in 10 spoils.
00:27At peak season, that translates to up to 40,000 metric tons of apples wasted, roughly the
00:33weight of the Titanic.
00:35One of the main reasons that number is so high is once they're in cold storage, it's really
00:41difficult to find out how the apples are doing.
00:43This is Tuani Hoffman, a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering
00:48in Potsdam.
00:49It's important to keep the cold room doors closed to maintain the conditions uniform inside,
00:55because if you constantly open the door, so you will change all the environment, how
01:00the air flows, how the temperature is distributed.
01:05So once they're in cold storage, you can hardly look at the apples, let alone see inside them.
01:11Their condition has to be guessed at, from factors like the temperature and humidity of
01:16the air inside the storage chamber.
01:18But it's really difficult to see how the fruit is getting on in the cold rooms.
01:22An environment that's even a little bit too humid, for example, is not good news for the apples.
01:28The condensation process on the surface of the fruits, it can lead to the proliferation of fungi
01:35or bacteria or any microorganisms which are there, because imagine we already have the nutrients
01:40from the fruits, and now we are also offering water, so we are just making a favorable condition
01:45for them to proliferate.
01:48That's where these sensors come in.
01:50We are not only collecting data and logging it into the sensors, but we are also streaming in real time,
01:58so we can see in real time what is happening inside the cold storage, which usually is a closed system.
02:05Currently, operators generally would only see how many apples have spoiled at the end of the cold storage period.
02:12But in Potsdam, a twin of the fruit made from repurposed Christmas baubles filled with hydrogel
02:18is helping researchers see what's going on.
02:21The synthetic apple mimics the health of the actual apples in cold storage and gathers information.
02:27Sensors directly on the fruit measure condensation.
02:30This means the cold room conditions can be adjusted quickly after the reading is taken.
02:35Now we also can get information directly from the fruits, within the bulk of fruits.
02:42And this is really important because we know exactly what are the needs of these fruits.
02:47The sensors could be used to check the health of fruit kept at warmer temperatures as well,
02:52like melons or papayas.
02:54In Indonesia, food is often lost because of the way it's harvested.
02:59Efforts to curb the loss are also hampered by a lack of access to technology.
03:03Felicita Schneider is an international expert on the topic.
03:07In countries like Indonesia, I think technology can be a major game changer.
03:13Especially AI-supported technology can support the building of resilient and sustainable food systems.
03:22I think the challenge for Indonesia is to implement it on a national scale,
03:28because technology is only as good as the users of the technology.
03:33One group of such users could be smallholder farmers.
03:36They dominate Indonesia's agricultural sector.
03:40Improving their access to technology could be a way to minimize the loss of crops after harvesting, for example.
03:48It's especially important with smallholders to provide a good framework for the implementation of technology.
03:55So, for example, you could provide trainings and awareness-building campaigns within the smallholders.
04:04Researchers say interventions in the food chain are one of the most effective ways to help solve the problem.
04:11If technology like these sensors can be rolled out at a national level,
04:15it could be a major boost in the fight to reduce food waste worldwide.
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