3?? amazing startups are reducing food waste in their own ways

Food Waste, Plastic Pollution, Mental Health, Child Labour- it’s easy to dismiss them as someone else’s problem. It’s easy to tell ourselves that someone else is taking care of this. But who is this ‘someone else’? And where are they?

?????♂?Not My Problem is an effort to shine a spotlight on these startups and founders who are solving these problems in their own ways.

Every week, I pick a problem and share stories of 3 startups across the world that are tirelessly working on solving it.

The first edition is around Food Waste.

If food waste was a country, it’d be the #3 global greenhouse gas emitter- UN

Had Jane Kou, Fotis Fotiadis & Miha Pipan and Rayner Loi & Keshav Sivakumar dismissed Food Waste as someone else’s problem, these 3 companies would never have been founded-

__________________________________________________________________

??Connecting people to delicious unsold meals

That’s perfectly edible... Annually, around one-third of the food produced globally for human consumption is wasted. This includes large quantities of edible food thrown away by eating establishments at the end of the day.

Making unsold food accessible...Bring Me Home is connecting these establishments (restaurants & cafes) in 3 provinces of Australia with customers that are ready to purchase this food at a discounted price. If unsold, this food is thrown out into landfills, where it can’t compost properly.

Win-Win-Win...Landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20x more potent than CO2(so less food waste ?? lower environmental impact); customers get to purchase edible food at a discounted rate and retailers earn extra revenue.

__________________________________________________________________

??Turning local food waste into animal feed

Poultry farmers love soy... Chickens are mostly fed a grain and soy-rich diet (reason- elevated levels of protein). The high soy demand by poultry farmers in countries like the UK is causing farmers in Brazil to destroy forests to produce more soy.

Producing animal feed without deforestation... A great alternative to a soy-rich diet is insects- rich in protein, can be sourced locally and the birds love it! Feeding live insects also encourage hens to carry out natural foraging behaviour (less inclined to peck other birds).

Farm-to-fork model(for the chickens)...Better Origin is growing larvae using food waste in shipping containers. Instead of ending in landfills, food and crop waste are dumped in the container and maggot eggs are introduced. Within 2 weeks, they decompose the food, grow into larvae and are ready to be fed to the chickens- creating a circular food system.

__________________________________________________________________

???Tracking food waste in your kitchen

If you can’t measure, you can’t reduce…Commercial kitchens(think hotels, airlines) throw away heaps of unconsumed food(semi-prepared or cooked meals) every day. A lot of them donate it to food banks but not many make an effort to reduce the wastage(by effectively measuring it).

Get Insight into your waste...Lumitics food waste tracker allows kitchen staff in these commercial kitchens to effectively measure their food waste. Installed in the kitchen dustbin, the tracker measures the quantity and contents(using a ?? and AI) of the waste before it is disposed of.  

Becoming part of the process…Commercial kitchens are busy spaces. Lumitics’ plug-n-play model seamlessly integrates with the kitchen workflow and provides chefs with actionable insights(waste generated, customer and seasonal trends) that helps them minimize food waste. 

__________________________________________________________________

?? Epic conversations

Watch my conversations with founders tackling food waste in Canada

• Goldilocks Wraps- An eco-friendly alternative to plastic wraps, these compostable wraps keep food fresh for a longer duration and help in reducing food waste.
• Fresh City Farms- A hyperlocal grocery company that controls the entire supply chain from growing the produce to delivering the final products.
• Nature Knows- A proprietary packaging technology keeps the fruits and vegetables fresh for a longer time and helps to reduce food wastage.

__________________________________________________________________

?? Our weekly tips 

• Plan your meals- To avoid shopping for products that you will not consume and eventually throw away.
• Ugly delicious- Choose those ‘not so perfect’ looking fruits and vegetables that are edible but others won’t buy.
• Has it really expired?- Learn how to interpret food product dating.

__________________________________________________________________

Feedback and suggestions are always welcome??. Also, if you know any other startups across the world that are tackling the problem of food waste, do let us know ??

Want to get these articles in your inbox every Friday? Subscribe here