Business Model Innovation for a Foodtech Startup : Solving Food Waste Using Real Time Spoilage Indicator

Sammanfattning: Food, an essential to human existence is also a major contributor to negative environmental and social impact due to the complexity of the food system, current ways of working of the stakeholders and consumer behaviour. This thesis deals with one such food product, fresh meat which has a high carbon footprint due to extensive land and water usage during production. The use of traditional date labelling systems were the printed due date differs from the actual due date has led to wastage of such an impactful product category. To tackle this specific issue of waste Innoscentia is developing a real time freshness sensor which can indicate food spoilage by reacting to the volatile organic compounds released as meat shelf life decreases, thus bridging the gap between printed shelf life and actual shelf life. In order to commercialize such a technology in the complex food supply chain the firm has to have a sustainable business model. The purpose of this research is to understand the value of the said product and propose business models that can be used to commercialize this product. This is done by studying the different stakeholders involved through literature, semi structured interviews and a case study of a Baltic retail chain. The main findings of the empirical research shows the existence of the aforementioned cause of fresh meat waste and presents the high magnitude of waste due this particular cause in the retail stage. The current practices, perceptions regarding food waste of the interviewed stakeholders are presented along with their perception of the real time spoilage sensor. Using these results the value of the sensor for the producers, retailers and end consumers is presented. Finally, five different business models with producers as the customer segment based on different value creation possibilities are presented. Additionally, retailers as a customer segment and other value creation possibilities are discussed. The study ends by providing recommendations to Innoscentia in order to commercialize the product and indicates further research to be done on business models for products specifically providing value to multiple supply chain stakeholders.