Dynamic digital product passports for short-shelf-life food and drink could cut waste and improve safety

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) will become mandatory in the EU from 2027, but current approaches are static and designed for long-shelf-life products like electronics. While they record fixed information such as design, materials and recycling instructions, they cannot reflect rapid changes in freshness, safety or quality. 

In a perspective article published in Nature Reviews Clean Technology, researchers have introduced the world’s first comprehensive framework for dynamic digital product passports (D-DPPs), showing how real-time sensing, supply-chain digital twins, physics-informed machine learning and secure data infrastructures can work together to track lifecycle changes in short-shelf-life items. 

D-DPPs work by continually updating as products move through farms, factories, transport, storage and retail environments. They could also support earlier interventions to prevent spoilage, reduce unnecessary waste and strengthen transparency across food and drink 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 team suggests supermarkets could act as living labs to test D-DPPs under real conditions, providing a practical way to evaluate how the technology supports freshness monitoring, stock rotation and day-to-day decision-making. 

The framework set out a new pathway for digital sustainability and more circular use of resources across the food and drink sector. It also shows how collaboration across engineering, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is essential for building the safer, smarter and more sustainable supply chains of the future. 

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Notes to editors