How meat startups are leveraging technology to bring best quality produce

The trucks that move produce from farms to slaughter houses and retail stores have IoT-enabled trackers that track the produce and periodically send temperature data

Meat startups that sell their products online are leveraging technology to bring the best possible produce to the consumer’s table, so that the convenience of ordering meat and seafood online is matched by access to products with guaranteed quality.
 
Whether it is FreshToHome, Nandu’s, Licious or Meatigo, they have all adopted technology-enabled systems such as automated feeding systems, patented apps, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and Internet of Things (IoT)-based trackers to make sure fresh and contamination-free produce reaches the end-consumer.
 
For instance, FreshToHome, the Bengaluru-based online meat startup, uses an IoT-based technology to track the temperature of the product. So does Nandu’s, an omni-channel meat startup also based in Bengaluru. This is essential, as these companies sell chilled meats and seafood which need to be kept and transported at a temperature between zero and 4 degrees Celsius. Unlike in other countries, Indians by and large do not like to consume frozen meat products.

 

The refrigerated trucks that take the produce from farms to slaughter houses and finally to retail stores have IoT-enabled trackers which track and send temperature data periodically. If there is any anomaly, an alert goes out to the system.
 
FreshToHome also has a patented commodities exchange technology or an app, through which fishermen on the docks can scan the catch of the day. Once the fisherman opens the app, it scans the fish and detects the variety and size of the product, based on which he puts in his bid for auction. If the light is poor during late evenings, the fisherman can select and click on the relevant picture of the product on the app to put in his bid. 

 
The company also uses test strips developed by government agencies which change colour in case the product contains additives — such as ammonia in meat, which could have been added by middlemen to keep it fresh.
 
What’s more, most of these startups have a predictive system to make optimal use of their resources. “Thanks to our forecasting system, we know how much to buy and how much to sell,” says Shan Kadavil, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of FreshToHome. The company has machine learning and artificial intelligence-enabled forecast systems to work out the consumption patterns of consumers.

 
In its bid to make fresh produce available to buyers, Nandu’s controls the quality of the meat right from the time an animal or bird is reared. For instance, if you order chicken from Nandu’s platform, and for some reason are not satisfied with it, you can get the entire life history of the chicken within minutes. This is thanks to Nandu’s ERP system that ensures 100 per cent traceability and transparency of its products. 
 
“We have 70 farmers who are working with us. We schedule the placement of chicken to them and this is recorded in the ERP system. So, at any point in time, we can say how many birds are at what stage of life, their body weight, what they are consuming, and so on. Every single element that goes into the production of the chicken is known to us,” says Narendra Pasuparthy, founder and CEO of Nandu’s, which has seen the demand for its products go up by up to 40 per cent over the past month, when the country was hit by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 
“The system also decides when to harvest the birds. (The growing cycle of chickens is 38-42 days.) This technology has enabled us to stay ahead of the curve,” adds Pasuparthy.
 
India consumes meat worth around $30 billion every year and the demand is only expected to grow faster. Of the country’s Rs 1.7 trillion poultry market in the country, only 10 per cent is organised. But it has gained in acceptability since the Covid-19 outbreak, as it offers the convenience of shopping online.
 
At Gurugram-based startup Meatigo, all products are vacuum-packed and sealed by using a German technology to ensure a longer shelf life. “Our vacuum packs are highly specialised solutions to prevent any sort of oxidation or freezer burn,” says Siddhant Wangdi, Meatigo’s founder.

 
Licious, which is backed by 3one4 Capital, also runs on a forecast system that collects data from past sales, what people are browsing and clicking on the company’s website, and so on. The prediction algorithm improves with every data input.