FiWare

Tsenso

For the delivery of food, the handling temperature is an important parameter, critical to hygienic requirements, product quality and shelf life. tsenso is an automated, cloud-based solution to track and gather information on product storage conditions from farm to fork. It collects complex logistical and monitoring data and aggregates it into a “Fresh Index”, a real-time shelf life indicator. This enables wholesalers and retailers to make decisions on quality assurance and determine weak spots within the supply chain. Suppliers, distributors and consumers benefit from a higher level of food transparency which reduces costs, leads to increased trust and less food wastage at all stages of the supply chain.

Goals and challenges

With FIWARE, we developed the tsenso cloud and suitable hardware to monitor last mile food logistics. We focused on easy installation and setup processes as well as intuitive UI. With our partners such as scientific engineering offices and pilot customers, we are now able to extend the tsenso cloud and implement the monitoring of the entire food supply chain: tsenso collects, combines and analyzes data to show the temperature history of each product from farm to fork. To provide the real-time shelf life indicator “Fresh Index” as a next step, we cooperate with universities which are experts on food safety and technology. In the long run, the dynamic Fresh Index shall replace currently provided expiry dates. We are seeking partners in the area of science, logistics and retail that want to join us on our journey.

The choice of FIWARE

We designed tsenso as a highly flexible and scalable solution, compatible with any state-of-the-art hardware. We took great care to be ready for emerging technologies such as LoRaWan or SIGFOX. We chose FIWARE NGSI and ORION, as they bring a good level of standardization as well as flexibility. ORION together with its supporting components CYGNUS and RUSH have proven to be a reliable structure.

The use of FIWARE technology

The cloud provided access to tools using the FIWARE Generic Enablers (GE) and leverages the following enablers:
• ORION ContextBroker GE is used to register and store inputs from the sensors such as temperature and to deliver updates.
• CYGNUS and RUSH are used for storage and publishing of the context data based on the subscription/notification feature of Orion.
• KEYROCK is used for Identity Management and WILMA for security.

Benefits and accomplishments

To know the remaining shelf life based on true temperature data during transport enables to replace estimated expiry dates, which are based on worst case scenarios. The dynamic indicator gives retailers and consumers more precise information on how long the produce is safe to sell or eat. Secondly, it is still happening today that specified temperature limits are violated for short time frames. tsenso will replace the uncertainty of whether to waste possibly good food or possibly sell deteriorated food by a validated and standardized quality process, based on the Fresh Index. This leads to a higher transparency and quality as well as less food wastage. Together with European wholesalers and logistics companies as well as research labs we have carried and will carry out relevant pilot projects to assure as well as prove the reliability of the system.