A Morning in a Café Kitchen
It is 7 a.m. in a busy café kitchen in Mumbai. The chefs are preparing for the day’s orders. Milk crates arrive, but half the stock has already soured because of a delay on the road. Bunches of spinach arrive wilted, while expensive imported cheese shows temperature shocks. The outlet manager quietly adds up the losses — thousands of rupees gone in a single day.
This scene is not unique. Across India, kitchens and cafés face similar challenges. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that India loses nearly 40 percent of its food before it reaches consumers. For food and beverage (F&B) brands, this is not just a moral problem of wastage in a hungry country. It is an economic crisis costing lakhs every year.
The good news? Smarter logistics can change the story.
Why Does Food Wastage Happen in Supply Chains?
Food wastage is rarely caused at the outlet level. By the time stock arrives in a kitchen or dark store, the damage has usually been done upstream in the supply chain. The major culprits are:
Temperature Shocks: Products like dairy, frozen goods, and vegetables deteriorate when trucks or warehouses fail to maintain consistent cold environments.
Delayed or Unpredictable Deliveries: Traffic, breakdowns, or poor planning cause perishables to sit in transit longer than they should.
Poor Warehouse Planning: Overstocking, understocking, and lack of rotation lead to expired or wasted products.
Lack of Real-Time Visibility: Without live tracking or dashboards, managers only find out about problems when it’s too late.
For a brand managing multiple outlets across cities, these issues multiply — and the losses easily run into lakhs every quarter.
How Smarter 3PL Solutions Reduce Wastage
Third-party logistics (3PL) providers, especially those focused on F&B, are designed to tackle these challenges. Here’s how:
1. Cold Chain Reliability
A well-managed cold chain keeps sensitive items at consistent temperatures from factory to outlet. For example, Frozen Food Transportation ensures ice cream, meat, and frozen meals never face thaw-and-refreeze cycles that destroy quality.
2. Warehousing That Works
Efficient warehousing combines both cold and dry storage. Warehousing & Cold Storage allows brands to hold stock closer to outlets, rotate inventory properly, and cut last-mile delays.
3. Smarter Inter-City Deliveries
Scaling brands often ship products from a central factory to multiple cities. Without reliable intercity logistics, goods arrive late or spoiled. Inter-City Logistics enables faster, more reliable transfers.
4. Visibility and Control
Live dashboards give managers real-time insights into temperature, delays, and delivery schedules. Instead of reacting to spoilage, they can take proactive decisions.
The Financial Impact: Saving Lakhs
Wastage eats directly into profit margins. Imagine a mid-sized brand spending ₹50 lakhs monthly on raw material. If even 10 percent of that is wasted due to poor logistics, that’s ₹5 lakhs gone every month.
With smarter 3PL:
Consistent cold chain reduces wastage by 5–7 percent.
Better warehousing cuts stock expiry by 3–4 percent.
Route optimization saves on damaged or delayed goods.
Even a 5 percent cut in wastage can save ₹2.5 lakhs a month for a brand of this size. Over a year, that’s ₹30 lakhs saved — enough to fund a new city expansion or marketing campaign.
Beyond Money: The Sustainability Angle
Food wastage also has a hidden environmental cost. Every kilogram of spoiled produce represents wasted water, energy, and emissions that went into growing, packaging, and transporting it. According to the World Bank, supply chain inefficiencies are one of the largest contributors to food system emissions.
By reducing wastage through efficient 3PL, F&B brands are not only saving money but also reducing their carbon footprint. This resonates with today’s eco-conscious consumers and positions the brand as a responsible player.
Real-Life Example: A Frozen Dessert Brand
A frozen dessert brand in Delhi faced constant complaints of melted stock at outlets. Their vehicles lacked reliable temperature monitoring, and intercity deliveries often faced 6–8 hour delays.
After shifting to a 3PL partner offering GPS-enabled frozen transport and live dashboards, wastage reduced by 60 percent in three months. The brand estimated savings of ₹18 lakhs annually, which it reinvested in opening new kiosks.
What F&B Brands Can Do Today
If you are an F&B founder or supply chain manager, here’s how to start reducing wastage immediately:
Audit Current Wastage: Track how much food you throw away weekly due to spoilage or delays.
Invest in Cold Chain: Even if part of your portfolio is perishable, temperature control pays off.
Use Warehousing Smartly: Place stock closer to demand, not just at one central facility.
Adopt Real-Time Dashboards: Visibility reduces surprises.
Partner with a Specialized 3PL: General logistics vendors rarely understand the sensitivity of F&B supply chains. Work with players like JustDeliveries that specialize in F&B.
Final Word
Food wastage in supply chains is not inevitable. With smarter logistics, it can be dramatically reduced — saving brands lakhs every year while also protecting the planet.
For India’s growing F&B industry, the future belongs to brands that balance profitability with responsibility. Partnering with the right 3PL is the first step toward that balance.
Mansi Mahansaria
I’m Mansi Mahansaria, CEO and Founder of JustDeliveries, a B2B logistics company specializing in the food and beverage sector. With a background in Chemical Technology (ICT Mumbai), an MBA (FMS Delhi), and experience at IDFC Private Equity and Tata Group, I’ve built a plug-and-play logistics network helping F&B brands scale efficiently. I also share insights on entrepreneurship and logistics at industry and academic events.
