Evigence Debuts FreshSense to Change How Food Industry Measures Freshness

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Evigence announced the general availability of its Freshness Management Platform with FreshSense, new sensors with patented chemistry-embedded QR codes. Evigence now offers food companies and cold-chain leaders the data-driven freshness insights at the case or unit level needed to boost end-to-end supply chain efficiency, guarantee food quality, reduce food loss, manage compliance and make decisions with confidence, the company said.

Evigence has launched multi-mode scanning capabilities, including augmented reality (AR) mobile scanning and automatic production-line vision, and now immediately uploads the scanned sensor data to the Evigence Cloud for analysis and visualization that generates in-depth dashboards powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Evigence said new features include: 

• Freshness Management Dashboards powered by its proprietary AI and machine learning platform that deliver real-time, actionable insights to help food industry leaders optimize every juncture across their supply chain, improve inventory management based on Real Remaining Shelf Life (RSL), ensure compliance and reduce waste while increasing confidence and enhancing customer satisfaction.
• Automated Early Supply Chain Scanning with automatic data capturing (ADC) technology, which streamlines traceability from initial production lines while minimizing manual labor to ensure optimal freshness and minimize waste. 
• Evigence Advanced Multi-Scan Technology, which allows users to simultaneously scan multiple cases of perishables using hands-on AR or product-line vision systems for complete freshness visibility and guaranteed food quality from production to consumption.
• FreshSense, freshness monitoring sensors with chemistry-embedded QR codes for scanning and visual freshness measurement with precision temperature and time tracking tied to the individual perishable product profiles and food types.
  

An exorbitant amount of waste across the supply chain continues to create operational and environmental challenges for the food industry, said Evigence. Making food management more complicated, each perishable item has different environmental requirements for optimal freshness and seemingly minor variations like a single degree of temperature can add to or cut shelf life by 10%. Based on Evigence data from trials with food industry partners, the shelf lives of retail units vary 30-40% on average in the same delivery or pallet, while the actual remaining life of fresh foods varies anywhere from 50-100%, meaning products often have half or double the expected shelf life. 

With more than 2,000 current users, Evigence delivers real-time insights and alerts, addressing freshness loss at the unit level at every stage of the supply chain, from acceptance levels upon delivery to the detection of freshness compromises during transport routes and distribution center holdings. Giving food companies the data insights they need to optimize the shelf life of each product, Evigence provides advanced analytics, including:

• Visual representations of freshness status of all scanned products with immediate identification of both the problematic and freshest products
• Heat map visualizations of cases and days left of Real Remaining Shelf Life
• Weekly data trends to identify patterns across regions, divisions, freshness groups and inspection outcomes
• Analysis pinpointing patterns across divisions, regions, markets or supply chain partners to help find and fix inefficiencies
• Alerts on potential impacts from varying conditions across different regions and seasons or unexpected disruptions such as power outages or extreme weather
• Insights into the rate of inspections and immediate performance results, as well as inspector-specific trends, to support quality control and highlight needed operational improvements
• One-click deep dives by division or freshness group and the ability to slice and dice insights by product type, stage, region, division, APN, PO#, etc.
• Comprehensive overviews of scanning compliance to support adherence to protocols
  

“Our technology will eventually be the death of the date code as we aim to optimize freshness throughout supply chains, inventory, retail and even in consumers' homes,” said Evigence co-founder and CEO Yoav Levy. “Date codes are terribly inaccurate indicators of food freshness and product quality, leading to tremendous inefficiencies throughout the food industry supply chain, from the distributors all the way to consumers’ homes. Freshness expectations versus reality lead to the waste of perfectly good food, as well as the consumption of unsafe food. It is time to take the guesswork out of food freshness to accurately guarantee food safety. The journey from production to consumption is filled with variables that heavily impact quality and freshness. Adding advanced temperature tracking down to the item level, rather than assuming consistency across an entire pallet or shipment, will change how the food industry assesses freshness.” 

Find more details on the latest solutions and offerings here.