Is Manufacturer Avery Dennison Beating Retail Food Waste?
Avery Dennison, a global packaging and containers manufacturer, is spearheading innovation in radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology that could unlock what the United Nations has identified as a US$1tn opportunity in food waste reduction.
The company's manufacturing solution, developed in partnership with retail giant Walmart, is bringing RFID technology to fresh food categories that were previously impossible to tag due to technical limitations.
The collaboration addresses a critical challenge that has long plagued the industry: deploying RFID technology in high-moisture, cold environments such as meat cases.
Avery Dennison's manufacturing breakthrough enables RFID-enabled labels to function effectively across fresh departments, particularly in bakery, meat and deli sections where temperature and moisture have traditionally prevented the technology's use.
Manufacturing innovation tackles industry challenge
Avery Dennison has created and manufactured a first-of-its-kind sensor technology specifically designed to withstand the demanding conditions of fresh food retail environments.
The company's solution represents a major manufacturing achievement, overcoming the technical barriers that previously limited RFID to dry goods categories.
The manufactured labels give Walmart the ability to track inventory faster and more accurately, ensuring products remain stocked and ready when customers want them.
The technology works across meat, bakery and deli products, providing employees with digital use-by dates at their fingertips and boosting their ability to rotate products more efficiently and make smarter markdown decisions.
Avery Dennison's digital identity solution
Julie Vargas, Vice President and General Manager of Avery Dennison Identification Solutions, says: "Supporting Walmart with first-to-market RFID innovation across multiple fresh food categories underscores our mutual commitment to people and the planet."
She explains that by giving each item its own digital identity, associates instantly know the freshness of the foods they are handling, enabling better inventory management and resulting in less waste.
Julie adds: "This is a landmark moment for the industry and chimes with our own personal milestone as Avery Dennison celebrates 90 years of helping to solve some of the world's most complex challenges."
The manufacturer's RFID solution is part of a broader strategy to boost source-to-store transparency across the food retail industry. Avery Dennison says it remains committed to enabling a more connected food supply chain through its Optic solutions portfolio, making visibility and transparency from source to store possible.
Global manufacturing impact and sustainability
Leaders at Avery Dennison are positioning the technology as a transformative force across Walmart's 11,000-plus stores globally. The manufacturing solution could help Walmart achieve its sustainability goals, including its aim to cut global operational food loss and waste intensity in half by 2030.
Mike Colarossi, Head of Enterprise Sustainability at Avery Dennison, says: "The UN has identified food waste as a US$1tn opportunity."
He explains that unlocking that opportunity requires innovation and collaboration across the value chain, and says he is excited about how Avery Dennison and Walmart will "take a bite out of the problem".
Walmart says: "By introducing automated item-level identification, Walmart and Avery Dennison are transforming how fresh food is managed – making operations smarter, faster and more sustainable."
The retailer adds that addressing food waste and ensuring freshness are more important than ever for consumers, producers and retailers, describing the solution as innovation in action that connects the physical and digital to reduce waste, improve labour efficiency, enhance consumer experiences and advance sustainability.
Radio Frequency Identification operates like a barcode, wirelessly tagging objects via electromagnetic fields to track and store information.
Unlike traditional barcodes, RFID-enabled items do not need to be in the line of sight of a scanner to be read, as the tag can be embedded into a product and scanned as long as it is within range. The technology already impacts daily life through Oyster cards, passport chips and contactless payments.
