From Field to Fork — Visible.Efficient.
35.5 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted in Canada every year — yet only 4% of avoidable waste gets rescued. Distribution is where the biggest interventions happen.
Canada's food GDP contribution
Tonnes of food lost or wasted annually
Of avoidable waste gets rescued
The Supply Chain Gap
The average food item in Canada travels over 3,000 km before reaching a consumer. Along that journey, cold chain breaks, forecast errors, and fragmented logistics create a trail of preventable loss.
12% of perishable inventory is lost between warehouse and delivery. Temperature excursions during transit account for $800M in annual waste. Last-mile challenges — from loading dock to shelf — destroy margins on the products that matter most.
Yet Canada's food distribution network has no unified visibility layer. Distributors, cold chain operators, and retailers operate in silos — each blind to the losses happening at the handoff points between them.
The supply chain is where the biggest interventions happen.
Regulatory Timeline
SFCR Traceability
Safe Food for Canadians Regulations require one-up, one-back traceability across all distribution channels. Full chain visibility is the next enforcement frontier.
FSMA 204
FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act Rule 204 mandates additional traceability records for foods on the Food Traceability List. Impacts all Canadian exporters to the US.
ISO 22000
International standard for food safety management systems. Cold chain operators and distributors increasingly required to demonstrate compliance across the logistics chain.
Cold Chain Guidelines
Updated Health Canada and CFIA cold chain handling guidelines. Temperature monitoring, break documentation, and corrective action protocols for perishable distribution.
The Distribution Ecosystem
Canada's food supply chain is a complex network of producers, processors, distributors, and destinations — each a potential intervention point where data visibility can prevent loss.
The Supply Chain Network
Click any participant to explore their role in the distribution network
Sources
Destinations
Circular: IoT + Reverse Logistics
Cold chain monitoring feeds back to distributors, reverse logistics handles returns and surplus — creating the circular flows that reduce system-wide waste.
Canada's food distribution network — connected
Loss Hotspots
Food loss occurs at every stage of the supply chain. Understanding where and why is the first step to intervention.
Post-Harvest
10-15%Root causes: Handling, grading, packaging delays
Processing
20-30%Root causes: Trim waste, byproduct loss, quality rejects
Distribution
8-12%Root causes: Cold chain breaks, forecast errors, transit damage
Retail
5-10%Root causes: Shrink, date-label confusion, over-ordering
Consumer
15-25%Root causes: Over-purchasing, storage, plate waste
Cold Chain Infrastructure
Canada's cold chain market is $6.09B and growing to $12.3B. The opportunity is in connecting fragmented infrastructure.
Current State
- Fragmented cold chain operators
- Manual temperature logging
- Reactive maintenance cycles
with platform
Connected State
- Unified IoT monitoring layer
- Predictive spoilage alerts
- Automated compliance records
Surplus Redistribution
From Waste to Impact
Organizations like Second Harvest, FoodMesh, and Food Banks Canada are already rescuing surplus — but they operate on unpredictable donations. Connected distribution intelligence turns reactive food rescue into planned redistribution, increasing rescued volume by 3x while reducing logistics waste.
Who We Serve
Seven stakeholder groups across the distribution chain. Each faces unique challenges — the platform solves them with shared infrastructure.
Distributors & Wholesalers
12% of perishable inventory is lost between warehouse and delivery. No real-time visibility into cold chain breaks, route inefficiencies, or demand mismatches across distribution networks.
End-to-end shipment tracking, IoT-connected cold chain monitoring, and predictive demand matching. Real-time dashboards for inventory, spoilage risk, and delivery optimization.
Reduce shrink by 30-50% through early intervention. Compliance-ready for SFCR and FSMA 204 traceability requirements.
Model: Per-facility SaaS + IoT hardware lease
Specialty & Regional Distributors
Small and regional distributors lack the tech infrastructure of national players. Manual processes, spreadsheet tracking, and no cold chain analytics mean higher loss rates and thinner margins.
Affordable, plug-and-play distribution management. Mobile-first inventory tracking, automated SFCR compliance reporting, and shared logistics intelligence.
Enterprise-grade visibility at SME pricing. Level the playing field against national distributors without capital-intensive IT investment.
Model: Tiered monthly subscription
Retailers & Grocers
Shrink is the #1 profit killer — $4.8B annually in Canada. Forecast errors from distributors create over-ordering, and cold chain breaks in the last mile destroy margin on perishables.
SKU-level waste tracking integrated with distributor feeds. Predictive ordering to reduce over-purchase. Automated surplus routing to food rescue before expiry.
1-3% margin improvement from shrink reduction alone. Real-time visibility into distributor performance and cold chain compliance.
Model: Per-store monthly + analytics tier
Cold Chain Operators
Temperature excursions cost the Canadian cold chain $800M annually. Manual logging, compliance gaps, and no predictive maintenance mean operators are reactive, not proactive.
Continuous IoT temperature monitoring with automated alerting, predictive maintenance scheduling, and digital compliance records for CFIA and Health Canada audits.
Cut temperature-related losses by 40%. Automate compliance documentation. Predictive maintenance reduces equipment downtime by 25%.
Model: Per-unit monitoring + platform license
Food Service Providers
Restaurants, caterers, and institutional kitchens receive deliveries with inconsistent quality and no traceability data. Waste from over-ordering and poor forecasting averages 10-15% of food cost.
Connected ordering with distributor inventory data. Delivery quality scoring, automated reorder optimization, and surplus donation routing for excess prep.
Reduce food cost by 5-8% through better forecasting. Traceability compliance for institutional contracts. ESG reporting from verified waste reduction.
Model: Per-location monthly subscription
Food Rescue Organizations
Receive unpredictable donations with no visibility into what's coming, when, or in what condition. 60% of donations are last-minute. Logistics capacity is wasted on pickups that don't materialize.
Connected surplus pipeline from distributors and retailers. Predictive inbound forecasting, automated matching by location and capacity, and nutritional impact tracking.
Transform from reactive recipients to planned distribution networks. 3x increase in rescued volume through intelligent routing. Prove impact to funders with real data.
Model: Free tier (grant-subsidized)
Logistics Tech Companies
The Canadian cold chain market is $6.09B and growing to $12.3B, but it's fragmented. No open data layer connects IoT vendors, TMS providers, and supply chain platforms.
The Distribution platform is infrastructure, not an app. Open APIs, standardized data schemas, and network effects: every new node increases data value for all participants.
$6.09B addressable market. Government co-funding (75% eligible). First-mover in building the connective tissue for Canada's food distribution intelligence layer.
The Platform
Four phases, each building on the last. From regulatory intelligence to national data infrastructure.
Supply Chain Visibility
Q1-Q2 2026
End-to-end shipment tracking, real-time inventory dashboards, and distributor onboarding. Establish the data backbone for Canada's food distribution network.
Cold Chain Optimization
Q2-Q4 2026
IoT temperature monitoring, predictive spoilage alerts, and cold chain break detection. Reduce the 12% annual loss from temperature excursions in transit.
Surplus Redistribution
2026-2027
Intelligent surplus matching between distributors and food rescue organizations. Automated routing, shelf-life optimization, and impact measurement.
National Logistics Platform
2027+
Unified distribution intelligence across provinces. Route optimization, demand forecasting, and export-grade supply chain analytics for Canadian food networks.
Supply Chain Visibility
End-to-end shipment tracking, real-time inventory dashboards, and distributor onboarding. Establish the data backbone for Canada's food distribution network.
Cold Chain Optimization
IoT temperature monitoring, predictive spoilage alerts, and cold chain break detection. Reduce the 12% annual loss from temperature excursions in transit.
Surplus Redistribution
Intelligent surplus matching between distributors and food rescue organizations. Automated routing, shelf-life optimization, and impact measurement.
National Logistics Platform
Unified distribution intelligence across provinces. Route optimization, demand forecasting, and export-grade supply chain analytics for Canadian food networks.
Global Context
The countries leading in food distribution efficiency have invested in connected supply chain infrastructure. Canada has the opportunity to leapfrog.
Netherlands
35%Reduced food distribution waste by 35% through integrated cold chain monitoring and centralized logistics platforms. Rotterdam hub serves as a global model.
UK (WRAP)
18%WRAP's Courtauld Commitment drove 18% per-capita waste reduction through supply chain collaboration, redistribution networks, and standardized date labelling.
Japan
31%Reduced food waste by 31% since 2000. Just-in-time distribution, mandatory reporting, and advanced cold chain tech keep logistics losses under 2%.
France
2016 LawFirst country to ban supermarket food waste (2016). Distribution-level surplus must be donated or redirected. Model for mandatory redistribution legislation.
Canada: Fragmented Cold Chain, Rural Gaps, No Unified Data Layer
Canada's food distribution network spans 10 million km2 but has no connected visibility infrastructure. Cold chain gaps in rural and northern communities mean food that survives 3,000 km of transit is lost in the last mile.
Canadian cold chain market
Cold Chain & Technology
The technology infrastructure that makes supply chain visibility possible. Standards, sensors, and systems working together.
GS1 Standards & Traceability
Global Standards • GTIN, SSCC, EPCIS
GS1 standards provide the universal language for supply chain data. GTIN for product identification, SSCC for shipment tracking, and EPCIS for event-based visibility. SFCR traceability compliance is built on these foundations — and our platform speaks them natively.
Cold Chain IoT
Continuous temperature, humidity, and location monitoring from warehouse to delivery. Real-time alerts for excursions.
Predictive Analytics
AI-driven spoilage prediction, demand forecasting, and route optimization. Digital twins model the full distribution chain.
Compliance & Traceability
SFCR Traceability
Gap: Manual record-keeping, paper-based
Automated one-up, one-back digital traceability
FSMA 204 Readiness
Gap: No KDE/CTE tracking for US exports
EPCIS-compliant event capture at every node
Cold Chain Compliance
Gap: Spot checks, retroactive documentation
Continuous monitoring with automated audit trails
Blockchain for trust, IoT for truth. Canadian blockchain pilots (Walmart Canada, Loblaw) have proven supply chain traceability works at scale. Our platform integrates with existing GS1 standards and blockchain infrastructure to provide both real-time monitoring and immutable audit trails.
Funding Strategy
Canada's grant ecosystem is uniquely aligned with agriculture data infrastructure. Two stacking layers of non-dilutive capital.
Logistics Grants
Innovation assistance for cold chain tech
AI-driven supply chain optimization
IoT and sensor network development
Supply Chain Innovation
AAFC cluster program for distribution infrastructure
Strategic Innovation Fund for logistics platforms
$4-8M over 3 years
Stacking strategy
75% government assistance
Maximum eligible assistance
Assess Your Supply Chain
Whether you're a distributor, cold chain operator, retailer, or food rescue organization — the first step is understanding where losses happen and how to prevent them.