Picadeli Partners with Digimarc to Curb Retail Shrink and Combat Food Fraud in Fresh and Prepared Foods Market

Advanced Digital Watermarking Enhances Self-Checkout Security and Reduces Loss

LOS ANGELES & BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Picadeli, a pioneer salad company, and Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), a global leader in digital watermarking technologies, today announced a strategic partnership aimed at tackling the increasing problem of retail shrink and food fraud in the fresh and prepared foods market. This partnership integrates Digimarc’s advanced digital watermarks into Picadeli’s branded packaging, enabling retailers to implement secure, automated product verification and ensure pricing accuracy at self-checkout. This innovation significantly reduces shrinkage while maintaining a seamless customer experience.

Retailers, both large and small, are facing rising challenges with price look-up (PLU) fraud at self-checkout, particularly in areas like produce, deli counters, and salad bars. A recent study reveals that retail shrink rates for businesses using self-checkout lanes are more than double the industry average, reaching nearly 4%¹. The fresh foods category is especially vulnerable to this kind of fraud, impacting profitability.

“As Picadeli scales fresh meals via its AI-powered Salad Bar across the U.S., we’re committed to helping our retail partners eliminate shrink,” said Patrik Hellstrand, CEO of Picadeli US. “Our collaboration with Digimarc addresses key challenges like PLU fraud to ensure profitable store operations and a frictionless consumer shopping experience. It’s an extension of our mission to innovate and disrupt the fresh food market with cutting-edge technologies.”

Digimarc digital watermarks seamlessly integrate with weight-based and variable product codes, triggering automatic system overrides when entered codes don’t align with the digital watermark’s data. These invisible digital watermarks are embedded throughout the packaging, providing protection that is resistant to tampering and ensuring product information remains intact during self-checkout. Unlike traditional barcodes that can be manipulated or obscured, Digimarc’s technology maintains checkout accuracy without compromising packaging design or operational efficiency.

“As self-service and fresh food options continue to grow, so do the complexities in maintaining security and operational efficiency,” said Riley McCormack, President and CEO of Digimarc. “We’re excited to join forces with Picadeli to deliver innovative solutions that directly address these pain points. Together, we are not only reducing retail shrink but also enhancing the overall self-checkout experience for both retailers and consumers. We are committed to providing industry-leading retail solutions to enhance the retail experience – increasing efficiency, preventing loss, and combatting fraud.”

Learn more about solutions to fight PLU fraud at self-checkout.

About Picadeli

Picadeli is an AI Salads Bar pioneer, driven by the belief that fast food should be food that’s good for you. The idea is simple: through self-served meals, democratize healthy food and prove that fast food can be affordable, fresh, and tasty. The high-tech salad bars can be found in more than 2,000 stores around Europe and the United States. Since its start in 2009, Picadeli has enabled grocery and food service operators to offer customers an innovative, fresh, and tasty salad concept.

About Digimarc

Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) is the pioneer and global leader in digital watermarking technologies. For nearly 30 years, Digimarc innovations and intellectual property in digital watermarking have been deployed at a massive scale for the identification and the authentication of physical and digital items. A notable example is our partnership with a consortium of the world’s central banks to deter counterfeiting of global currency. Digimarc is also instrumental in supporting global industry standards efforts spanning both the physical and digital worlds. In 2023, Digimarc was named to the Fortune 2023 Change the World list and honored as a 2023 Fast Company World Changing Ideas finalist. Learn more at Digimarc.com.

¹ CBS News