COOMIDA, innovative tool to reduce surplus food waste and food needs

In 2017, there were 112.8 million people in the EU-28 who lived in households at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), equivalent to 22.4 % of the entire population. In 2017, 6.6% of the population in the EU-28 were severely materially deprived. On the other side, around 88 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the EU, with associated costs estimated at 143 billion euros (FUSIONS, 2016). Together, in 2018, the European Food Banks provided 781,000 tons of food - equivalent to 4.3 million daily meals - to 45,700 charitable organisations for the benefit of 9.3 million deprived people. Regarding the traditional donations, there are also a number of bottlenecks. Mainly, donors and charities must go to the Food Banks, consuming time, resources and increasing fuel emissions. On the other side, as the resources of Food Banks are limited, they use to be focused on large donations, so little or remote surplus donations can be lost.

COOMIDA is an innovative technological and cooperative tool aimed to ease food donation (including surplus food), thus reducing food waste production. COOMIDA connects local donors, food bank, volunteers, and charities through a collaborative network for an efficient and sustainable management of food donations. COOMIDA allows donors and charities to keep contact directly; therefore it can reduce time, emissions and expenditure. COOMIDA also allows to recover little and remote donations that otherwise could exceed the Food Bank capacity.