Ordering the right amount of olive oil with the help of networked optical sensors

The company Amfora brings traditional olive oil producers directly together with commercial customers in the catering industry. By eliminating middlemen, Amfora is able to guarantee fair prices to olive oil producers and support sustainable olive oil production, while offering customers in the food service industry high-quality and attractively priced olive oils. For the Geneva-based company, the Innosuisse project, in which it is collaborating with the ZHAW School of Engineering, represents a revolution in the way restaurants will approach the purchase and use of liquid products in the future.

Until now, Amfora customers have had to estimate olive oil or remind themselves to reorder fresh oil in time. This involves a great deal of administrative work, especially for smaller catering businesses. Amfora also has to make estimates every year of how much olive oil they need to sell, reliable supply chains have to be organized, and that again involves high costs.

In cooperation with the InES and the IAMP, the development of a prototype for a system that will predict when Amfora customers will need a new olive oil delivery - before they themselves become aware of it - is now starting. This is made possible by miniaturized optical sensors and communication with extremely low power consumption from the olive oil containers to Amfora. "Measurement methods in photonics allow a sample liquid to be examined quickly and non-destructively with regard to various parameters. Thanks to our ZHAW expertise, such methods can be implemented in low-cost sensors," explains Prof. Dr. Francesca Venturini. The use of artificial intelligence is also expected to help. Amfora is certain, "If it works, it will change our business forever and help us bring farmers and chefs together with incredible efficiency."