OneThird strikes €1m investment to supercharge spectral imaging

OneThird, the start-up on a mission to eliminate food waste, has been awarded a €1 million innovation credit from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

The funding is earmarked for a breakthrough in “quality control at scale”: a high-volume version of its non-destructive spectral imaging solution.

While OneThird’s existing handheld scanners are already used by growers and retailers to check individual fruits, this new investment will fund the development of an automated, inline system capable of scanning entire crates and trays in just seconds.

Current quality control (QC) in the fresh produce industry relies heavily on manual sampling — checking a few pieces of fruit and assuming they represent the entire batch. This guesswork often leads to entire shipments being rejected or perfectly good produce being binned prematurely.

OneThird’s new spectral imaging technology changes the game by moving from sampling to full inspection. In just three seconds, the system can scan a full crate of strawberries or blueberries, measuring internal parameters like Brix (sugar content) and predicting shelf-life without touching or damaging the fruit.

“We have already demonstrated that non-destructive measurement at the fruit level delivers a proven improvement,” says Marco Snikkers, founder of OneThird. “With this support, we can now deliver a solution at scale. In an inline application, it means only the specific punnets that fail to meet specs are rejected, not the entire load.”

The transition to spectral imaging offers three transformative advantages for the industry:

1. 20% waste reduction: company simulations show that shifting to full-batch imaging can reduce waste by an average of 20% per batch by identifying “hidden” defects before they spread.
    
2. Precise shelf-life prediction: strawberries are typically given a standard five-day best-before date. OneThird’s technology can identify that one punnet may last three days while another lasts thirteen. This allows retailers to fine-tune stock rotation and prevents supermarkets from removing fruit from shelves too early.
3. Objective traceability: by digitising quality, growers and distributors gain an objective, data-backed record of their produce. This strengthens their negotiating position with retailers and significantly increases the acceptance rate of shipments.

The innovation credit will drive the development of an inline system expected to be market-ready for strawberries and blueberries by 2027, with plans to expand to other high-value crops shortly after.

As the global food industry faces increasing pressure to meet sustainability targets, OneThird’s investment in spectral imaging provides a high-tech shield against the estimated 40% of fresh produce that currently never reaches a consumer’s plate.