Tunable was recently featured on PBS NOVA, America’s most popular science program with over 5 million weekly viewers. The episode showcased Tunable’s groundbreaking innovation—a machine olfaction device (commonly called an "electronic nose")—that has the potential to revolutionize food quality control and reduce global food waste.
Food waste, responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, is a major driver of climate change. Annually, one-third of crops are wasted before reaching consumers due to inefficiencies in the supply chain. In Norway, food warehouses often inspect only the surface of pallets under time constraints, leaving hidden spoilage undetected and contributing to supermarket waste.
Tunable, in partnership with Norwegian food warehouse Bama, has developed a device that uses advanced spectroscopy to detect spoilage in fruits and vegetables. By analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released during rotting, the device identifies spoilage with precision beyond human capability. Tunable's database of chemical profiles enables it to distinguish fresh from spoiled produce, even within the same pallet. Drawing on expertise from monitoring greenhouse gas emissions on container ships, the team faced challenges during early testing, including accuracy issues caused by low warehouse temperatures.
But as Tunable’s CEO, Christian, noted, “Failure is an integral part of the process. We can’t perfectly predict how things will work in the real world until we try them.”
After fine-tuning the device and overcoming these obstacles, the technology delivered promising results. The system successfully identified spoilage in test scenarios, proving its potential to transform quality assurance processes in food supply chains. Tunable’s innovation offers more than just better produce inspections. By catching spoiled items early, food waste can be drastically reduced. Rejected produce can be repurposed, sent to food banks, or used for other sustainable purposes instead of ending up in landfills.
“We hope to make food supply chains more efficient and less wasteful,” said Tharindu,Tunable’s business development manager. “If we can be part of the solution, it’s huge.”
Scaling Tunable’s innovative electronic nose for warehouses worldwide has the potential to significantly reduce food waste and its associated greenhouse gas emissions, tackling a critical challenge in the fight against climate change. Being featured on this episode of PBS NOVA, which celebrates engineers developing groundbreaking solutions to preserve our planet, is a tremendous honor. Even better, the episode captured the device’s success and the team’s well-deserved satisfaction with their achievement.
As Eivind, the lead engineer on the project, put it: “I’m not the most excited guy, but this is exciting.” And indeed, this small step could mark a giant leap in the fight against global food waste and climate change.
Watch the video yourself to see how Tunable is helping preserve food quality and reduce waste:
This Artificial Nose Sniffs Out Rotting Food | NOVA | PBS