Home / FoodIntel / FoodIntel Specification
FoodIntel
Predict. Prevent. Redistribute.
FoodIntel is an open source specification for AI-powered food inventory intelligence that helps organizations track food, predict expiration and surplus, prevent waste, support local sourcing, and redistribute food before it spoils.
Purpose
FoodIntel provides a modular framework for managing food throughout its lifecycle, from production and delivery through storage, sale, consumption, donation, spoilage, or disposal. The specification enables grocery stores, food markets, local growers, farmers markets, food networks, and other food organizations to use AI to turn inventory and food lifecycle data into actionable intelligence.
FoodIntel is designed to support both individual organizations and interconnected local food networks. Organizations can implement the core modules independently and add optional plugin modules as their operational needs expand.
Core Principles
- Treat food as a traceable lifecycle rather than a static inventory quantity.
- Use AI to assist with prediction, analysis, recommendations, and automation.
- Preserve human oversight for consequential decisions.
- Do not invent missing production, harvest, expiration, or inventory information.
- Maintain traceability from products and SKUs through individual lots and inventory events.
- Support local food producers and regional food supply networks.
- Identify opportunities to prevent food waste before food becomes unsellable or unusable.
- Support redistribution of viable surplus food.
- Allow organizations to configure policies according to their operational requirements.
- Support modular adoption without requiring every organization to implement every capability.
- Avoid dependence on a specific AI provider, model, vendor, or commercial platform.
Core Modules
Core Module
The Core Module defines the foundational FoodIntel specification and provides the common concepts, records, relationships, rules, and lifecycle states required by other modules.
The Core Module establishes:
- Organizations
- Locations
- Products
- Product categories
- SKUs
- Barcodes
- Lots
- Units of measure
- Suppliers
- Producers
- Inventory locations
- Inventory quantities
- Production dates
- Harvest dates
- Delivery dates
- Receiving dates
- Purchase dates
- Expiration dates
- Sale dates
- Donation dates
- Disposal dates
- Inventory events
- Product lifecycle states
- Data provenance
- Confidence levels
- Human confirmations
- AI-generated recommendations
FoodIntel should distinguish between verified information, calculated information, predicted information, AI recommendations, human-confirmed information, and unverified information.
Product Traceability Module
The Product Traceability Module provides identification and lifecycle traceability for food products.
FoodIntel should support relationships between products, SKUs, barcodes, lots, production or harvest dates, expiration dates, suppliers, producers, and locations.
A barcode or SKU should not be assumed to uniquely identify an individual lot when multiple lots of the same product can have different production or expiration dates.
The module should support traceability from the source of a food product through delivery, receiving, storage, movement, sale, consumption, donation, spoilage, or disposal.
Inventory Module
The Inventory Module provides real-time and historical visibility into food quantities and locations.
The module should track:
- Quantity received
- Quantity currently available
- Quantity sold
- Quantity consumed
- Quantity transferred
- Quantity returned
- Quantity damaged
- Quantity spoiled
- Quantity donated
- Quantity disposed
- Inventory adjustments
- Inventory location
- Inventory age
- Lot-level quantities
Inventory should be represented through events so that changes can be traced rather than simply replacing previous quantities.
Inventory Lifecycle Module
The Inventory Lifecycle Module tracks the movement of food through its operational lifecycle.
A food item may move through states including:
Produced, Harvested, Delivered, Received, Stored, Available, Sold, Consumed, Donated, Spoiled, Expired, or Disposed.
The lifecycle should preserve relevant dates, quantities, locations, responsible organizations, and supporting records.
AI Intelligence Module
The AI Intelligence Module provides the intelligence layer used to analyze FoodIntel data.
AI capabilities may include:
- Inventory analysis
- Demand forecasting
- Expiration prediction
- Surplus detection
- Purchasing recommendations
- Product replacement recommendations
- Local sourcing recommendations
- Waste risk analysis
- Donation recommendations
- Anomaly detection
- Inventory optimization
- Natural language interaction
- Operational recommendations
AI recommendations should provide understandable reasoning, relevant supporting data, and confidence information where appropriate.
AI should recommend consequential actions rather than silently executing them unless an organization has explicitly authorized the applicable automation.
Purchase Intelligence Module
The Purchase Intelligence Module analyzes purchasing behavior and inventory requirements.
It may evaluate:
- Historical purchases
- Purchase frequency
- Purchase quantities
- Supplier patterns
- Product demand
- Inventory velocity
- Seasonal demand
- Current inventory
- Expected inventory
- Expiration risk
- Overstock risk
The module can recommend when and how much to purchase while accounting for expected demand and existing inventory.
Consumption and Velocity Module
The Consumption and Velocity Module analyzes how quickly food moves through inventory.
It may calculate:
- Sales velocity
- Consumption velocity
- Average daily movement
- Average weekly movement
- Seasonal movement
- Product turnover
- Slow-moving inventory
- Fast-moving inventory
- Changing demand patterns
Velocity information can be used by other FoodIntel modules to improve purchasing, expiration, surplus, and waste predictions.
Expiration Intelligence Module
The Expiration Intelligence Module monitors food approaching expiration and identifies products requiring attention.
It should support:
- Days until expiration
- Expiration risk
- Lot-level expiration tracking
- Short-dated inventory
- Expiration alerts
- Expected remaining shelf life
- Use-by recommendations
- Sell-through recommendations
- Donation timing recommendations
- Spoilage risk predictions
The module should distinguish between manufacturer-provided expiration information and AI-generated estimates.
Overstock Intelligence Module
The Overstock Intelligence Module identifies inventory accumulation that exceeds expected demand or operational requirements.
AI may compare inventory against:
- Historical sales
- Current demand
- Forecast demand
- Purchase quantities
- Consumption rates
- Shelf life
- Expiration dates
- Seasonal patterns
- Producer capacity
- Store capacity
The module can identify products that should be promoted, purchased less frequently, redistributed, or otherwise addressed before spoilage occurs.
Waste Intelligence Module
The Waste Intelligence Module identifies patterns that contribute to food waste.
It may analyze:
- Expired products
- Spoiled products
- Damaged products
- Persistent overstock
- Excess purchasing
- Slow-moving products
- Short shelf-life products
- Unused inventory
- Repeated disposal patterns
AI can identify recurring causes of waste and recommend operational changes.
Automation Module
The Automation Module allows organizations to automate approved FoodIntel workflows.
Automations may include:
- Inventory alerts
- Purchase reminders
- Expiration notifications
- Overstock notifications
- Donation preparation
- Local producer matching
- Reporting
- Data validation requests
- Inventory review workflows
Automations should respect organization-defined authorization and approval policies.
Reminder and Notification Module
The Reminder and Notification Module provides configurable notifications based on FoodIntel events, conditions, predictions, and thresholds.
Notifications may include:
- Last purchase reminders
- Reorder reminders
- Expiration reminders
- Short-dated inventory alerts
- Overstock alerts
- Donation alerts
- Producer delivery reminders
- Inventory verification requests
- Waste risk alerts
Product Intake AI Module
The Product Intake AI Module assists organizations in entering food information from delivery records, labels, invoices, receipts, product documentation, and other available information.
AI may extract:
- Product name
- Brand
- SKU
- Barcode
- Lot information
- Quantity
- Unit
- Producer
- Supplier
- Production date
- Harvest date
- Expiration date
- Delivery information
Extracted information should be marked according to confidence and should be presented for human verification when necessary.
Local Food Modules
Local Producer Module
The Local Producer Module enables farms, growers, ranchers, dairies, bakeries, fisheries, food manufacturers, and other local food producers to provide information about their products and supply.
Producer information may include:
- Producer identity
- Product information
- Available quantity
- Production capacity
- Wholesale price
- Minimum order
- Delivery area
- Delivery schedule
- Seasonality
- Shelf life
- Production dates
- Expiration information
- Certifications or declarations
- Availability status
Farmers Market Module
The Farmers Market Module supports food inventory and producer information within farmers markets and similar local food environments.
It may track:
- Participating producers
- Products
- Available quantities
- Harvest information
- Product availability
- Market dates
- Seasonal products
- Unsold inventory
- Producer surplus
- Potential redistribution
Local Food Replacement Module
The Local Food Replacement Module identifies opportunities to replace or supplement nationally distributed or major branded products with comparable products from local producers.
AI may evaluate:
- Product category
- Product type
- Ingredients
- Attributes
- Package size
- Unit
- Quality
- Wholesale price
- Retail price
- Margin
- Local availability
- Producer capacity
- Seasonality
- Delivery frequency
- Minimum order
- Shelf life
- Historical sales
- Customer demand
- Current supplier
- Current purchasing volume
A local replacement does not need to be an exact product match. FoodIntel may identify functional, category, ingredient, size, quality, seasonal, or use-case alternatives.
The module should support gradual replacement rather than requiring an organization to abandon existing brands or suppliers.
Organizations may establish policies such as:
- Local first
- Local when economically viable
- Local when available
- Local during the growing season
- Local for selected categories
- Local for a specified percentage of purchasing
The module may track original products, replacement products, producers, quantities replaced, replacement dates, sales performance, waste, margins, and supply reliability.
Local Producer Discovery Module
The Local Producer Discovery Module helps organizations identify producers capable of supplying products that match current or anticipated needs.
AI may identify potential producers based on:
- Product compatibility
- Location
- Availability
- Capacity
- Price
- Season
- Delivery capability
- Shelf life
- Historical reliability
Local Supply Network Module
The Local Supply Network Module connects local producers, food retailers, markets, community organizations, and other participating food organizations.
The module may identify:
- Local supply
- Local demand
- Supply gaps
- Producer capacity
- Retail demand
- Seasonal availability
- Surplus
- Potential sourcing relationships
Redistribution Modules
Food Redistribution Module
The Food Redistribution Module identifies viable food that may be redirected before expiration, spoilage, or disposal.
Potential redistribution pathways may include:
- Food banks
- Soup kitchens
- Community organizations
- Food pantries
- Other authorized food recipients
The module should track the quantity, product, lot, expiration information, source, destination, and status of redistribution activity.
Donation Matching AI Module
The Donation Matching AI Module uses available food and recipient information to identify suitable donation opportunities.
AI may evaluate:
- Food type
- Quantity
- Expiration window
- Recipient needs
- Recipient capacity
- Geographic proximity
- Pickup or delivery requirements
- Operating schedules
- Eligibility requirements
AI should identify and rank potential recipients while preserving human authorization over donation decisions.
Optional Plugin Modules
FoodIntel supports optional plugins that extend the specification without requiring every organization to implement additional functionality.
Point of Sale Plugin
Connects sales information with FoodIntel inventory and product lifecycle records.
Supplier Integration Plugin
Connects supplier purchasing, delivery, product, and availability information with FoodIntel.
Barcode Scanning Plugin
Supports barcode-based product and lot identification.
Receipt Scanning Plugin
Extracts purchase information from receipts and associates purchases with inventory records.
Delivery Routing Plugin
Supports routing of local food deliveries, transfers, and donations.
Temperature Monitoring Plugin
Supports temperature information for food where storage conditions are relevant to inventory and expiration intelligence.
Warehouse Management Plugin
Extends FoodIntel for warehouses, distribution centers, storage facilities, and larger inventory environments.
Food Bank Management Plugin
Extends redistribution capabilities for organizations receiving and managing donated food.
Customer Shopping Plugin
Provides consumer-facing inventory, shopping, food availability, and purchasing assistance.
Dynamic Pricing Plugin
Uses inventory age, demand, expiration risk, and other factors to recommend pricing actions intended to improve sell-through and reduce waste.
Analytics and Reporting Plugin
Provides configurable reports and analysis covering inventory, purchasing, local sourcing, waste, expiration, redistribution, and operational performance.
Local AI Inference Plugin
Supports organizations that want to perform AI processing locally rather than relying on external AI services.
Food Lifecycle Intelligence
FoodIntel is designed around a continuous intelligence cycle:
Identify → Receive → Track → Analyze → Predict → Alert → Act → Sell, Consume, Donate, or Remove → Learn
Each completed lifecycle event can provide information that improves future inventory analysis, purchasing decisions, demand forecasts, expiration predictions, local sourcing recommendations, and waste prevention.
Data Integrity and Human Oversight
FoodIntel should preserve the distinction between recorded facts and AI-generated conclusions.
AI must not fabricate missing product, lot, production, harvest, expiration, quantity, supplier, or producer information.
When information cannot be verified, FoodIntel should identify the uncertainty and request human confirmation where appropriate.
Organizations should be able to define which actions require approval before execution, particularly actions involving inventory adjustments, disposal, donation, product substitutions, purchasing, or other consequential operational decisions.
Specification Branding License (SBL)
Standard
- Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
- Copyleft enforced for network deployments
- Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/
Optional
- Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/foodintel/
License & Notice Requirements
FoodIntel is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
By contributing to any Open Arsenal project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.
Please note the following:
- All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
- Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to:
Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com. - FoodIntel specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
- The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update
notice.md. - When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
- Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.
For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.
Notice – FoodIntel
Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
Contributors
This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.
- Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – September 8, 2026
Created the repository for FoodIntel. Developed the specification for AI-powered food inventory intelligence that helps organizations track food, predict expiration and surplus, prevent waste, support local sourcing, and redistribute food before it spoils. - [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]
License – FoodIntel
This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
Key Points:
- You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
- All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
- The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.
For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.