TotalCtrl is a digital platform and mobile app that helps grocery retailers and consumers manage their grocery inventories and prevent food waste at the retail and household level.

Norwegian start-up TotalCtrl has developed a technology that reduces food waste both before and after food is sold. For grocery retailers, TotalCtrl provides software that uses food expiration data to reduce waste and increase profitability. The technology is compatible with existing retail software, allowing business owners to make smarter business decisions about their inventory in real time.

Retail managers benefit from a user-friendly web interface featuring a bird’s-eye heat map of food products close to expiry, recommended sell-by dates to maximise revenue, and the ability to create marketing promotions based on current inventory levels. The technology improves the efficiency of retail operations while enhancing the value of existing data.

For the household, TotalCtrl provides a mobile app that uses the same expiration data to help consumers use their food more wisely and ultimately save money. Users benefit from notifications when food is about to expire, recipe suggestions from the largest recipe database in Norway, and an improved understanding of their food usage.

TotalCtrl’s pilot project is with Handleriet.no, the second largest online grocery retailer in Oslo. In just four months, TotalCtrl estimates they have increased Handleriet’s sales by 5% and overseen a customer increase of 20% per week.

Waste happens throughout the whole life cycle of food products. The end result that one third of all food – worth an estimated $750 billion – we produce is wasted each year. At the retail and manufacturer level, this is largely due to poor forecasting and system inefficiencies. TotalCtrl seeks to facilitate more efficient inventory management in order to save money and prevent food waste.

Sustainable cities and communities
Reducing food waste at the manufacturing and retail levels is an important way to reduce the per capita environmental impact caused by food waste in cities.

Responsible production and consumption
TotalCtrl can help to eliminate food waste throughout the value chain by improving inventory management.