15 solutions to combat food waste
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 10:33 am
Food waste is a scourge. 1.6 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide each year . This figure is so big that it becomes inconceivable, but let's try to imagine it anyway:
1.6 billion tonnes is the equivalent of 160,000 Eiffel Towers.
160,000 Eiffel Towers is a lot of wasted food, and that food has a monumental environmental impact. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world , behind the United States and China.
The land used to grow food that will eventually be wasted is about 29 times the size of France (or almost 3 times the size of the Amazon rainforest). What's more, according to the UN, if we could reduce food waste by just 25%, there would be enough food to alleviate global malnutrition.
Fortunately, food waste is a problem that is completely solvable if qatar number for whatsapp consumers, businesses, farmers, and governments work together. A big part of the solution lies in technologies that are still emerging —there are a lot of incredible companies coming up with creative ways to solve the food waste crisis. I’ve rounded up the ones I like best here.
Food is lost at every stage, from farm to plate. So I organized this list into sections, based on which end of the supply chain the company is aiming to improve:
Farms
Supermarkets
Restoration
Homes
Farms
1. Apeel
To extend their shelf life, food producers have been coating their fruits and vegetables in wax since the 1920s. Apeel , a California-based company, has taken the idea much further.
In fact, it has designed an edible, invisible coating made from agricultural waste such as leftover grape skins used in winemaking. This coating can increase the resistance of fruits and vegetables by five times! According to the New York Times , Apeel can even deliver a batch of so-called "bananas of the week": each day, a new banana becomes ripe.
It’s a promising technology, especially for farmers in developing countries – in those countries, the difficulties farmers face in getting their produce to market before it rots are a major cause of food waste. But for the Western world too: if the coating lives up to its promise, it could drastically reduce fruit and vegetable waste in restaurants, supermarkets, and homes.
Apeel solution against food waste
Here's how a strawberry evolves with and without Apeel coating
2. Full Harvest
More than 9 million tons (900 Eiffel Towers) of "ugly" fruits and vegetables are thrown away each year in the United States alone, rejected by stores because consumers prefer, superficially, perfect-looking produce.
Full Harvest prevents this waste by creating the first B2B marketplace where farmers can connect with food companies to offload their surplus and imperfect produce. Those who buy this “odd” merchandise can save up to 40% of what they would have paid to traditional producers.
3. Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Produce
Like Full Harvest, Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Produce are on the front lines of preventing “ugly” fruits and vegetables from rotting in the fields.
Operating in the United States, they target consumers directly: they deliver baskets of imperfect produce to their subscribers, who are not picky. Imperfect Produce claims to have “saved” 18,000 tons of food and 4.5 billion liters of water.
1.6 billion tonnes is the equivalent of 160,000 Eiffel Towers.
160,000 Eiffel Towers is a lot of wasted food, and that food has a monumental environmental impact. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world , behind the United States and China.
The land used to grow food that will eventually be wasted is about 29 times the size of France (or almost 3 times the size of the Amazon rainforest). What's more, according to the UN, if we could reduce food waste by just 25%, there would be enough food to alleviate global malnutrition.
Fortunately, food waste is a problem that is completely solvable if qatar number for whatsapp consumers, businesses, farmers, and governments work together. A big part of the solution lies in technologies that are still emerging —there are a lot of incredible companies coming up with creative ways to solve the food waste crisis. I’ve rounded up the ones I like best here.
Food is lost at every stage, from farm to plate. So I organized this list into sections, based on which end of the supply chain the company is aiming to improve:
Farms
Supermarkets
Restoration
Homes
Farms
1. Apeel
To extend their shelf life, food producers have been coating their fruits and vegetables in wax since the 1920s. Apeel , a California-based company, has taken the idea much further.
In fact, it has designed an edible, invisible coating made from agricultural waste such as leftover grape skins used in winemaking. This coating can increase the resistance of fruits and vegetables by five times! According to the New York Times , Apeel can even deliver a batch of so-called "bananas of the week": each day, a new banana becomes ripe.
It’s a promising technology, especially for farmers in developing countries – in those countries, the difficulties farmers face in getting their produce to market before it rots are a major cause of food waste. But for the Western world too: if the coating lives up to its promise, it could drastically reduce fruit and vegetable waste in restaurants, supermarkets, and homes.
Apeel solution against food waste
Here's how a strawberry evolves with and without Apeel coating
2. Full Harvest
More than 9 million tons (900 Eiffel Towers) of "ugly" fruits and vegetables are thrown away each year in the United States alone, rejected by stores because consumers prefer, superficially, perfect-looking produce.
Full Harvest prevents this waste by creating the first B2B marketplace where farmers can connect with food companies to offload their surplus and imperfect produce. Those who buy this “odd” merchandise can save up to 40% of what they would have paid to traditional producers.
3. Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Produce
Like Full Harvest, Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Produce are on the front lines of preventing “ugly” fruits and vegetables from rotting in the fields.
Operating in the United States, they target consumers directly: they deliver baskets of imperfect produce to their subscribers, who are not picky. Imperfect Produce claims to have “saved” 18,000 tons of food and 4.5 billion liters of water.