BakePlan Software has been given a £43,600 grant by innovation agency Innovate UK to create a system to reduce food waste across retailers.

The grant will be invested in machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to develop a system that can see food products, count them and record data about them autonomously.

BakePlan Software specialises in demand-forecasting software, which advises supermarket bakers and other in-store food production staff on the right products to make at the best times of the day.

RedBlack Software created BakePlan Software as part of a restructure, with the aim of focusing on reducing waste for the retail and convenience sectors.   

The firm was awarded the funding after participating in Innovate UK’s Emerging and Enabling Technologies programme.

“This award from Innovate UK will enable us to take our concept from the drawing board to reality,” said Jane Tyler, managing director of BakePlan Software. “We will do this by mixing machine learning, autonomous imaging, speech recognition and mobile/cloud internet data delivery.”

Britain’s leading retailers have all pledged to cut their food waste by 20% by 2025 as part of the Courtauld Commitment.