Battling Food Waste (and More) through Smart Tech: Spoiler Alert

By some estimates, over 40% of the food produced in the United States is wasted—not consumed or put to other productive uses. It's a tragedy both in terms of squandering a precious resource and adding to our landfill and pollution problems.

Spoiler Alert, a Boston-based concern now active throughout the United States, has developed means and models for dramatically reducing the waste of food, along with other packaged goods [CPG]. Their good work represents both a boon for business and significant support for the environment.

Spoiler Alert uses proprietary technology to facilitate online listing, publicizing and distributing food that remains unsold or is otherwise unmarketable. The platform "eliminates bottlenecks and consistently manages inventory that's excess, slow-moving, short-dated or discontinued," the company says.

Efficiencies abound. "Streamlining the end-to-end transaction enables perishable inventory to be moved faster and to a wider set of channels," Spolier Alert notes. "This results in increased sales for CPG companies, a stronger supply of opportunistic inventory for closeout channels and less waste overall.

"Spoiler Alert’s customers recover value from products that would have otherwise been written off," the company continues. Notably, this "also helps reduce the amount of methane produced in landfills and increases food access in the US by offering the product to discount stores and non-profit organizations."

Founded in 2015, Spoiler Alert currently works with over 300 manufacturing plants and distribution centers across the US. In 2021, the company helped its customers sell more than 215 million pounds of excess inventory.

Current clients include Campbell Soup, Danone North America, Nestlé, Kraft Heinz and HelloFresh.

"Our vision is to power the waste-free economy," Spoiler Alert proclaims.

To which we say, Power on.

By Emily Wouk

Spolier Alert is at https://www.spoileralert.com