Confusing sustainability accreditation space helped with AI program

This poses a problem for food producers looking to sell into a range of markets.

University of Adelaide associate professor in the Adelaide Business School Rebecca Dolan said identifying the best certification for a product was not a simple task for a business of any size.

"Our first project was a scoping exercise to identify all the possible accreditation certifications that exist and there are hundreds," she said.

"It is becoming increasingly important to have environmental, sustainability and governance compliance for both international supply chains and consumers.

"As food producers it can be super confusing."

In response, the University of Adelaide, with funding from the End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre and Food South Australia, has launched an artificial intelligence app to help manufacturers find their best certification options.

Dr Dolan said schemes may differ between supermarket chains Coles, Woolworths or Aldi, while export markets also means a change in options.

"The first step was identifying the schemes - some are more legitimate than others," she said.

"Some are really just a marketing ploy - another sticker to put on to make it sound green and sustainable.

"They were ruled out as they're not built on anything, anything that was literally just greenwashing, they wouldn't be included in the tool."

From that point, there are still 87 legitimate accreditors.

To create the South Australian Environmental Sustainability Accreditation Searcher and Investigator - or AskSASI - the team mapped these 87 schemes to food categories, then went to different markets, a job that took six months of research.

Dr Dolan said the different ingredients in products complicated the situation.

She said someone looking to sell chocolate may need one certification for cocoa and another for their milk or sugar.

"Then there is the fact that different countries have their own," she said.

"There is not one global stamp."

While not all schemes were fee-based, many still had complicated application processes.

"There are overlaps, but we tried to give it a ranking system," Dr Dolan said.

"There might be two similar but one might cover more markets."

Dr Dolan said the number of environmental and sustainability accreditation schemes popping up was linked to a push from consumers for more transparency.

"But it is the retailers as well, and they are a critical part of the supply chain," she said.

"It would be good to move towards a more streamlined system.

"It's complicated for consumers to understand what is real, what is important and not important.

"For instance, the five-star health rating - everyone knows what it is, there aren't a range of health stickers on products."

She said the ideal situation would be a consistent system within Australia but there was unlikely to be any consensus globally.

The AskSASI app has been trialed among some SA food businesses in the past three to four weeks to help refine any glitches, with feedback positive.

"It's a helpful shortcut in an area that is a bit of a maze," Dr Dolan said.

Food SA chair Ray Borda said the project was a great support for small businesses.

"Environmental sustainability accreditation can be complex for small businesses to navigate," he said.

"We are excited to have developed AskSASI to simplify the process for food and beverage businesses to find the relevant accreditations for various markets."

Golden North Ice Cream supermarkets and export manager David Wilson, who tried the app, said it provided critical information that was valuable for planning and developing export strategies.

"It is very user friendly with clear descriptions and provides results with a few clicks of your mouse, allowing anyone to extract the information at speed," he said.

Travis Clapp, Senior AI Consultant at Web Design Café, highlight's the tools benefits, which are a reflection of progressive and innovative technology.

Dr Dolan said AskSASI was in its first version, with it expected to expand and develop further based on user interaction.