Dynamic digital passports that track the condition of perishable goods in real-time could ‘dramatically cut waste and improve safety’, new research shows.
A new framework developed by researchers at the University of Surrey and King’s College London found that Dynamic Digital Product Passports (D-DPPs) for short-shelf-life food and drink could cut waste and improve safety.
Digital Product Passports record fixed information, such as design, materials and recycling instructions, but don’t reflect rapid changes in freshness, safety or quality.
Whereas could D-DPPs provide real-time, intelligent digital records that capture the true condition of perishable goods, such as food and drink, throughout their lifecycle.
D-DPPs work by continually updating as products move through farms, factories, transport, storage and retail environments. They could also enable earlier interventions to prevent spoilage, reduce unnecessary waste, and increase transparency across food and drink supply chains.
In a perspective article published in Nature Reviews Clean Technology, researchers from the universities explained how the framework for D-DPPs demonstrates how real-time sensing, supply-chain digital twins, physics-informed machine learning, and secure data infrastructures can track lifecycle changes in short-shelf-life items.
Dr Lei Xing, Lecturer in Digital Chemical Engineering / Fellow of Institute for Sustainability / Fellow of Institute for People-Centred AI, commented: “Perishable products don’t behave in fixed ways – they change hour by hour as they move through real supply chains. Static digital passports simply cannot keep up.”
“We’ve demonstrated how integrating digital twins, real-time sensing and AI can evolve DDPs from static compliance records into intelligent decision-support tools that enhance safety, cut waste and enable more circular supply chains.”
The research also highlights the role of secure, decentralised data systems, such as blockchain-supported networks and smart-contract routines, in keeping passport information trustworthy across fragmented supply chains.
The researchers suggest supermarkets could act as ‘living labs’ to test D-DPPs under real conditions.
Dr Miao Guo, Senior Lecturer in Engineering at King’s College London and co-creator of the D-DPP concept, explained: “To make our vision work at scale, DDPs need data infrastructures that can cope with intermittent connectivity and rapidly changing conditions.”