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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Food Waste

There’s More to Food Waste Innovation Than Tech, According to ReFED’s Dana Gunders

This being The Spoon, a lot of our discussions around food waste concern the innovative technologies that could help us eventually curb the multi-billion-dollar problem and meet national and international targets to halve food waste by 2050. But as we learned today at our Food Waste Insights and Innovation Forum, done in partnership with nonprofit ReFED, tech is only one piece of the solution. When it comes to food waste, true innovation is as much about new business models, behaviors, and ways of thinking as it is about advances in, say, machine learning or computer vision.  

Dana Gunders, the Managing Director and a founder of ReFED, kicked off the event by asking two important questions related to food waste: What is innovation, and what is the problem we’re trying to solve with it?

The second question is the easier one to answer, and Gunders called on some well-known stats as a way of explaining how “radically inefficient” our food system actually is:

  • 35 percent of all food in the U.S. goes uneaten
  • $408 billion annually is spent in the U.S. on food that is never eaten
  • More than 40 million Americans are considered food insecure

Food waste also accounts for 4 percent of U.S. GHG emissions (that’s 58 million cars worth’ of greenhouse gases), 14 percent of all freshwater use, 18 percent of all cropland use, and 24 percent of landfill inputs.

Citing data from Project Drawdown, Gunders pointed out that reducing food waste ranked first of 76 solutions meant to reverse climate change — ahead of plant-based diets, utility-scale solar, wind turbines, and other well-known contenders.

New innovations will help us reach those targets and cut down overall food waste, but as we learned at today’s event, “innovation” means different things to different stakeholders when it comes to food waste. “People talk about food waste as if it were one problem. It’s not,” Gunders said at the event. “This is a complex set of inefficiencies and we need a whole suite of solutions to address that.” Gunders is, of course, referring to the wide variety of ways in which food is wasted along the supply chain. Post-harvest food loss looks different from food thrown out at the grocery store. Both of those in turn look different than food that we dump down our kitchen drains. In all of these scenarios, food waste looks different, so it follows that the solutions will vary greatly based on which part of the supply chain they are aimed at.

Tech is one obvious tool when it comes to innovation, and at this point, companies are working with everything from machine learning and image recognition to hyperspectral imaging and sensors to fight food waste. These and other technologies can track waste, help retailers forecast more precisely, and even tell us which pieces of fruit will ripen soonest in any given crop. 

But, as mentioned above, technology is only one piece of innovation. Equally important are new processes and business models as well as what Gunders calls “cultural evolution.”

New business models around food waste have been emerging steadily over the last few years, many of them around grocery and/or restaurant services selling surplus food. This is a model popularized by the likes of Imperfect Foods, Too Good to Go, Flashfood, and many others. Upcycled products are another example, as is offering financial incentives to managers, as Sodexo is doing. 

Cultural evolution, meanwhile, refers to what Gunders called “innovation on a much simpler level.” It’s smaller actions that work together to make the public more aware of food waste and encourage changes in behavior. Signage in dining halls about food waste or allowing customers to taste a product before they buy it are two examples.

In the wake a of the pandemic, a new administration, and an increased sense of urgency around climate change and food equity, the culture in the U.S. right now is open to change. As Gunders pointed out, now is the time for businesses with food waste solutions to consider where they fit into these changes and how they might test their customers accordingly.

RIND Raises $6.1M for Upcycled Fruit Snacks

RIND Snacks, a startup that produces upcycled dried fruit snacks, this week announced that it has raised $6.1 million in a Series A round of funding (news from Forbes). This round was led by Valor Siren Ventures, with participation from an existing investor, Melitas Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to $8.4 million. This most recent round of funding will be used to increase production capacity and expand RIND’s team.

RIND’s chewy dried fruit snacks are made from fruit that would have otherwise be wasted and wind up in the landfill. The peels of the fruits are left on, which are also typically discarded. The company estimates that it has prevented about 120,000 pounds of edible fruit peels from being discarded in 2020. Later this year, RIND will also be launching crunchy dried fruit chips and the company has also hinted at making roasted vegetable snacks (including the peel) in the future.

Towards the end of 2020, Whole Foods made predictions for food trends of 2021, and one of the trends happened to be upcycled foods. A few other companies make use of discarded fruit to create new products, including the Ugly Company and 2050 Company. In April, the “Upcycled Certified” label was officially launched by the Upcycled Food Association to help consumers pick out products from companies like these that are focused on reducing food waste.

RIND’s snacks are available for purchase on the company’s website, and in over 3,000 retail locations throughout the U.S., including Whole Foods, Wegmans, Meijers, and CVS. The company has also partnered with food delivery services like HungryRoot and Imperfect Foods.

Food Tech News: Goose Poop Beer, Plant-Based Culinary Degrees, and Free Just Egg

In this Food Tech News Round-up we cover beer made from food waste in Finland, the launch of new culinary degree programs in Boulder, Colorado, Natural Light’s vacation giveaway to Alaska, and the opportunity to score some free Just Egg products for you and your friends.

If you haven’t heard already, The Spoon has partnered with ReFED to host the Food Waste Insights + Innovation Forum next week on June 16. Tickets are free, and available here.

Ant Brewery’s new beers are made with food waste, goose poop, and wild herbs

Ant Brew is located in Lahti, Finland – a city that was named the European Green Capital of 2021 by the E.U. commission and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. The brewery is launching a new series of beers to celebrate called the “Wasted Potential”. The beers will contain local food waste ingredients such as berries, bread, and other fruits, wild herbs, as well as goose droppings. Gathered from a park in the city, the goose droppings will be used (in a food-safe way) to smoke malt to create a dark stout beer. The first beer that will be released is a wit-style beer that incorporates the leftover orange peels from a local pressed juice store, while goose droppings stout is set to be released towards the end of summer.

Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts launches plant-based degree program

Plant-based cooking is not typically a priority in culinary schools; however, Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts just announced the launch of their new plant-based degree programs. The school, based in Boulder, Colorado, and will offer three programs including an online plant-based culinary diploma, an online associate of occupational studies degree in plant-based culinary arts, and an on-campus plant-based cuisine diploma. The programs will teach students traditional culinary skills along with seasonal meal planning, meal composition, cultural plant-based cuisine, ingredient substitutions, and allergy awareness.

Natural Light will send your parents to Alaska for vacation

Some college grads and young adults have had to move back in with their parents due to the pandemic, so Natural Lights is hosting a giveaway to send parents on a well-deserved vacation. The summer vacation will be worth $20K and be hosted in Alaska. The winner will also receive a cash prize worth the amount of two cases of Natural Light and a little extra for snacks. To enter, you simply need to post on social media and share why your parents need a vacation and use the hashtags #sendmyparentsaway and #sweepstakes. The giveaway is open until June 16.

Free Just Egg for your skeptical friends

Eat Just, producers of the plant-based egg products and now cultured meat, will give three of your friends free Just Egg products. To do so, go to this website, and sign up to get an ambassador code. Your friends will use your ambassador code to purchase products from the Just Eat website, and then upload their receipt to be reimbursed. After this process is complete, the company will also send you a free product. The company is using this opportunity to introduce people to their products that may typically be skeptical towards plant-based products. The Just Egg is made from the base of mung beans, and currently comes in three forms: a liquid egg, folded patties, and sous vide bites.

Witness the Many Forms of Food Waste Innovation

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Since the start of 2021, we’ve seen numerous developments that showcase how vast and varied the efforts to fight food waste have become. Sachets that slow food spoilage. Hyperspectral imaging to analyze avocados. Vodka made from old crackers. A skincare line. 

All of these examples (and many others) underscore both the need for innovation and the fact that we’re getting more of it nowadays when it comes to food waste. Food waste, after all, is a global problem with environmental, monetary, and human consequences. To mitigate climate change and build a more resilient food system, the planet needs to meet food waste reduction targets set down by the United Nations, the USDA, the EPA, and others, including the UN Sustainable Development Goal of cutting food waste in half by 2050 (UN SDG Target 12.3.1).

Even just a few years ago, both the issues and the UN goal were mere abstraction to many outside the food industry. After all, it’s hard to visualize statistics like “one-third of the world’s food goes to waste” or “food waste’s global footprint is 3.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gases.”

Fortunately, groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), ReFED, the World Wildlife Fund, and others have worked tirelessly over the last several years to bring the topic of food waste closer to center stage in the conversations about our food system. In fact, ReFED estimates that the total amount of food wasted in the U.S. has leveled off since 2016, while food waste per capita has decreased 2 percent over the last three years. Meanwhile, investment is slowly but surely trickling into the space, with companies like Apeel, Imperfect Foods, and Silo closing large rounds of funding in the last several months.

Still, there is a lot of work to be done, which is where innovation can play a big role. Food waste happens at every stage of the food supply chain, from items left in the field to rot to those dumped own the drain or sent to the landfill. To curb the waste, we need more investment in the kind of infrastructure that can measure, rescue, and recycle organic waste and prevent it from going to landfills and incinerators. We also need a huge collective effort from food producers, manufacturers, retailers, restaurants, capital providers, and others, with innovation at the center of those actions. 

Many are already bringing new technologies and processes to the food supply chain to try and make waste less possible. One need only glance briefly at the level of innovation currently happening around food waste to understand the breadth of entrepreneurs, companies, and agencies using their collective brainpower to build more food-waste-fighting solutions.

But rather than read a big ol’ list of companies, I instead encourage you to join us next week, on June 16, for the Food Waste Insights + Innovation Forum. The Spoon has teamed up with ReFed for the all-virtual event, which will include chats with experts across the food supply chain as well as panels and innovator demos.

At this event, we want to highlight innovators in the food waste space, acknowledging the work of companies developing everything from biosensing technology for the supply chain to shelf-life extension tools for grocery retailers to those evolving and improving the date-labeling system in the U.S. Add grocery order automation, upcycling, solutions to at-home food waste, and many other areas to that list.

The event will also connect innovators — whether you’re onstage or in the audience — with investors and capital, and will even include a session dedicated to how companies can go about raising money for their company. An open networking/demo time will also allow investors to ask one-on-one questions to innovators and vice versa.

Got ideas you want to share about how to reduce food waste? Or maybe you’re looking for a new idea or partner to help supercharge your own company’s efforts in this area, or you just want to learn more about this growing movement. Whichever the case, register today for this half-day event.

More Food Tech Headlines

LIVEKINDLY Collective Acquires Seaweed Burger Maker, The Dutch Weed Burger – The Dutch Weed Burger makes a range of meat analogs using seaweed as the hero ingredient. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Print a Drink 3D Prints Designs Inside a Cocktail, Develops Smaller Machine for Corporations – Print a Drink has created two working robots (one in the U.S. and one in Europe) that can print out custom designs inside drinks.

NPD: Shipments of Plant-Based Proteins to Restaurants Up 60 Percent Year Over Year – Shipments of plant-based proteins from foodservice distributors to commercial restaurants were up 60 percent year-over-year in April of 2021.

Surge Alert Uses Climate Monitoring Devices and IoT Technolgy to Reduce Food Waste

Food waste occurs at every step of the supply chain from the farm to the consumer’s kitchen, and globally, approximately 30 percent of food produced for human consumption is lost somewhere within this chain. A company called Surge Alert aims to reduce food waste through its climate monitoring devices and 24/7 alerts.

Surge Alert produces what it calls beacons, which are small devices that can be placed in greenhouses, refrigerated transportation, restaurant walk-in fridges and freezers, or throughout a farm. The beacons most importantly measure temperature and humidity, which can quickly cause crops and produce to perish. Another variable measured is light, which effects the rate of which the plant grows and therefore If there is an environmental change (like the temperature getting too hot for example), wherever a beacon is placed, the user receives a notification on the Surge Alert app.

The company trialed the beacons and IoT technology on farms to determine how this solution could reduce food waste at the start of the food supply chain. One example from the trial came from a farm called Geneva Lakes Produce in Wisconsin, which used beacons to monitor a greenhouse. When the temperature dropped considerably on a winter night, the farmer received the temperature notification right away and was able to adjust the temperature before any of the crop spoiled.

It is estimated that the value of food wasted globally is worth around $1 trillion in a single year. Besides Surge Alert, a few other companies are focused on similar climate monitoring solutions to reduce food waste. SensorPush and UbiBot are two competitors both offer a few different sensors that can be used for food, agriculture, in the home, for pets, and other various industries. Some indoor greenhouse companies, like Element Farms and BrightFarms for example, integrate their own technology to monitor light, temperature, and humidity to create optimal conditions for crops within greenhouses.

Surge Alert recently launched an e-commerce platform for its starter kits and additional products, and its customers include individuals, food companies, restaurants, farms, distributors, and buyers from other industries. Currently, the company is offering a special of three months of free cellular data and cloud storage with the purchase of a starter kit. Normally, the hardware for Surge Alert’s beacons starts around $110 with a $14.99 monthly fee for cellular data and cloud storage. In addition to specialized kits for the food and agriculture industry, Surge Alert also offers solutions for hemp growing and storage, wine, cigars, and heat monitoring for pets.

Food Rescue Hero Now Makes Home Deliveries of Potential Food Waste

According to the EPA, 20 percent of what ends up in municipal landfills is food. Yet at the same, 35 million Americans experience food insecurity, and that number jumped to 42 million due to the effects of the pandemic. Keeping food out of the landfill and redistributing those in need of it is an ideal solution to this massive problem, and one non-profit trying to do this is Food Rescue Hero.

Food Rescue Hero, which calls itself the “DoorDash of food waste”, was launched in 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The non-profit uses an app (available for both iOS and android) to notify its volunteers when food donations are available for pick-up at different retailers like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Giant Eagle, Ralph’s Market, and Albertson’s. From there, volunteers are routed to the end destination, typically a food bank, community center, or non-profit with the food. According to the company, about 99 percent of the donations are successfully picked up and dropped off.

This week, Food Rescue Hero announced that it will now be offering home delivery of food that its volunteers rescue. This will also be operated through the app, and volunteer drivers will need to pass a background check to participate in these home deliveries. Throughout the pandemic, those who have the funds to do so could order through grocery delivery services like Instacart and Postmates. However, these services are often too pricey for those who face food insecurity. Additionally, many who depend on food assistance do not have access to a car or transportation, or may be housebound.

Local non-profit food banks often take on the task of rescuing wasted food independently, but there is often an issue with food transportation and delivery. Food banks typically only collect shelf-stable foods because they usually schedule pick-ups and deliveries on specific days. Food Rescue Hero employs volunteers able to pick up food on-demand, so therefore it can rescue and distribute fresh fruits, veggies, and bread products.

Too Good 2 Go is another start-up that uses an app to distribute soon-to-be food waste to consumers, and it operates throughout Europe and the U.S. Flashfood’s app allows consumers to select imperfect food items from their local grocer, and earlier this year the company partnered with Meijer to expand throughout the Midwest.

Food Rescue Hero currently operates in 12 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. The non-profit aims to be in 100 cities by 2030 and is currently accepting more donation partners and volunteer drivers.

Subpod Takes the Mess (and Smell) Out of Composting

Composting is a seemingly simple solution that all of us could participate in to help reduce the amount of food waste that enters the landfill. However, we offer plenty of excuses not to do it, like our available space or the smell. Enter the Subpod. This startup is producing mini composting units that are buried directly into your garden, keeping it out of sight — and smell.

The Subpod Mini is capable of composting up to 22 lbs of food per week, which is impressive considering its small size (16.93″ high by 19.45″ wide and 17.72″ deep). What makes this composting system different than other traditional models is that it is inserted directly into a garden bed and functions as a worm farm. It requires the same amount of effort as a traditional system, as the user’s job is only to dump composting scraps into the unit. From here, the worms and microbes in the soil do the work of breaking down the scraps. A head of lettuce takes roughly seven days to breakdown in the Subpod Mini.

One slight downside to this setup is that worms are required for it to work. Approximately 500 composting worms must be purchased separately, which can be found locally or online for about $40-$50.

Roughly 108 billion pounds of food is wasted each year in America, which is a lot of extra (and unnecessary) weight in our landfills. In addition to reducing the amount of food in landfills, composting can also reduce methane emissions, and increase water retention and carbon sequestration when added to the soil. A German-based startup called Kalea launched an in-home composter that converts food scraps to compost in 48 hours, but the appliance will set you back $889 USD. Vitamix also released an in-home composter that is compact enough to fit on a counter, and it is priced more affordably at $399.

It’s great the startups all over the globe are offering different equipment to deal with food waste on an individual level. There are a growing number of options to choose from for managing food waste, but it seems to come down to simply getting people to commit to composting. For those who are interested in composting, the Subpod Mini is available at a reduced pre-order price of $119 for a limited time. Pre-orders are expected to ship out in June 2021.

Ryp Labs, Formerly StixFresh, Goes Beyond Stickers to Protect Produce

Back in 2019 at The Spoon’s Smart Kitchen Summit, judges were so impressed by a company called StixFresh they dubbed it the winner of the event’s Startup Showcase competition. At the time, StixFresh was wholly focused on a single product, a food-safe sticker that, when affixed to a piece of produce, could protect against post-harvest bacteria, over-ripening, and premature spoilage.

Fast forward to 2021, and the company has since rebranded as Ryp Labs and expanded its capabilities for protecting crops after they are harvested. Its flagship product remains a sticker (which is still called StixFresh), but company cofounder and CEO Moody Soliman told me over the phone recently that Ryp Labs is now testing multiple technologies on different types of produce.

The company’s “core competency,” he says, isn’t simply about making stickers that prevent food waste. It’s about “develop[ing] formulations that can be applied to a variety of surfaces to combat post-harvest disease.” Hence the recent name change.

Protecting any given type of produce involves a two step process: finding the right formulation that can fight post-harvest disease and spoilage, and engineering a release vehicle for that formula.

Plants naturally emit compounds that can protect against disease and environmental hazards. What Ryp Labs essentially does is capture these compounds and use them in formulations that can then be applied to the produce to better protect it after harvest, a process that also extends the food’s shelf life. The specific application, or release vehicle, depends on the type of produce.

Stickers, for example, work well for larger pieces, such as apples, pears, avocados, and mangos. Ryp Lab’s patent-pending StixFresh product contains the aforementioned plant-produced compounds. When those compounds vaporize, they “cloak” the fruit, protecting it from bacteria and over-ripening.

Applying a sticker to a mango is one thing. Fixing them to every single berry in a case, on the other hand, would be far too unwieldy and time-consuming a process to be feasible. Smaller pieces of produce, such as grapes or berries, are better suited to other release vehicles, according to Soliman. 

Berries have actually been on Ryp Labs’ radar since 2019, and partly provided the inspiration for the company to explore release vehicles beyond stickers. For berries, a sachet that emits protective vapors can simply be dropped into a crate post harvest.

Other companies are also putting formats like sachets and edible coatings to work: most notably Hazel Technologies and Apeel, respectively. 

For Ryp Labs, the release vehicle and specific formulation each produce type gets depends on a number of factors, from when the formulation is being applied to the conditions in which the food will travel (e.g., cold storage versus room temperature). Ryp Labs works with each individual customer to understand the issues in their specific food supply chain. The goal is to match that customer with the best formulation and release vehicle without drastically interrupting the day-to-day operation.

Ryp Labs says it is already doing pilot studies with retailers and distributors and have seen a 15 to 30 percent reduction in losses on strawberries, blueberries, nectarines, and mandarins with its sachets and stickers.

Meanwhile, the company is in the final stages of development for its StixFresh product and plans to launch it to the consumer market in early 2022, most likely in the U.S. and Europe. Other products, including sachets, may be more of a B2B play, with Ryp Labs licensing them out to food producers and distributors. Soliman did not officially confirm as much, only suggesting that licensing its tech is an option on the table for the company.

Preserving other types of food and even flowers is also a possibility. As Soliman explained, Ryp Labs is essentially building a library of formulations that could eventually protect everything from mangos to poultry to freshly cut roses. That focus on the formulation could greatly differentiate Ryp Labs in the future. So while we might be seeing StixFresh stickers in grocery stores soon, those are just the beginning of Ryp Labs’ technological journey to better protect crops and fight food waste.

Apeel Acquires ImpactVision to Fight Food Waste With Hyperspectral Imaging

Apeel officially announced today is has acquired machine learning company ImpactVision for an undisclosed amount. The plan is to integrate ImpactVision’s hyperspectral imaging technology into Apeel’s applications systems at produce packing houses and distribution centers in North America, South America, and Europe. This is Apeel’s first major acquisition, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. To date, ImpactVision has raised $2.8 million.

Apeel’s existing application systems involve coating different types of produce with what the company calls its “shelf-life extension technology” — an edible, plant-based coating that gets applied to produce after harvest. The coatings extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by keeping moisture trapped inside the produce and oxygen out. In doing so, the rate of decay significantly slows. 

With the ImpactVision acquisition, Apeel will be able to add further analysis of the produce to its operations. ImpactVision’s tech collects and processes hyperspectral images of each individual piece of produce. Through machine learning models, the system can identify cues in the produce around its freshness, degree of maturity, and phytonutrient content.

Based on those elements, suppliers and distributors can then decide where each piece of produce should go. Those  with a shorter ripening window can ship to retailers geographically closer to the supplier, for instance, to avoid excess food spoilage. By way of example, today’s news announcement gave the following scenario: “If a produce supplier sees that one avocado will ripen tomorrow while another will ripen in 4 days, they know that one has more time to travel and should be sent to the retailer that is further away.”

Writing in a blog post today, Apeel CEO James Rogers noted that through the acquisition, “Apeel will now be able to integrate hyperspectral imaging technology into our supply chains, enabling us to provide new insights to our customers, both upstream and downstream, ranging from ripeness prediction to nutritional characteristics, even information on how the produce was grown; the very aspects that make every individual piece of fruit unique.”  

Rogers added that Apeel has already started the process of upgrading its application systems to include hyperspectral camera capabilities. The company says it has 30 supplier integrations on three continents with plans to double that number by the end of 2021.

Food Tech News: Powdered Oat Milk, Vietnamese Coffee Pour-Over Kits

Welcome to the weekend, the peak of spring, and your favorite place to catch up on food tech news. A few stories caught our eyes this week including China’s recently passed food waste law, new high-protein sesame seeds, Copper Cow Coffee’s latest funding round, and oat milk in the form of powder.

Copper Cow Coffee secures $8.5M in Series A funding round

Copper Cow Coffee produces Vietnamese coffee pour-over kits, and this week the women-owned company raised $8.5 million in funding that will be used for expanding distribution and product innovation. The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox and Arborview Capital and saw participation from Siddhi Capital, Silverton Partners, Social Starts, Montage Ventures, CRCM, and Stormbreaker Ventures. Copper Cow Coffee sources its coffee from farms in Vietnam that apply organic agricultural and processing practices. The company’s pour-over kits include condensed milk or coconut milk creamer packets and Vietnamese coffee, with flavor varieties including vanilla latte, churro, rose, and vanilla. The pour-over kits require no special equipment because the coffee bags fit over the rim of any mug or cup (as depicted above).

Photo by Diego Morales on Unsplash

High-protein sesame seeds for plant-based alternatives

Equinom, a seed-breeding technology company, has partnered with Dipasa, a sesame seed processor and exporter, to develop a high protein sesame seed for use in plant-based protein alternatives. The new sesame seed will be bred using Equinom’s AI-backed genomic optimization algorithms and distributed globally by Dipasa. Sesame seeds do not naturally have a high protein content like soy or wheat does, but the new high-protein sesame seed will contain 65 to 70 percent protein content (a normal sesame seed has a 23 percent protein content). Boosting the protein content of a sesame seed will make it a more viable option as a base for plant-based products.

Photo from Blue Farm’s website

Blue Farm aims to make oat milk more sustainable

Berlin-based Blue Farm has created a powdered oat milk base with the intention of making the plant-based milk sector more sustainable. Transporting liquid-filled cartons across the country, or even globally, releases transportation emissions. On top of this, many plant-based milk cartons are not recyclable. Blue Farm’s oat milk powder comes in a compact, 100% recycled plastic packaging which can be recycled again. The oat milk powder is shelf-stable, and simply must be shaken with water to create liquid oat milk.

Too Good To Go Expands Its Food Waste App Nationally Across the U.S.

Not so very long ago, the United States lagged far behind Europe in terms of the widespread availability of food rescue apps. Fortunately, a heightened awareness of the world’s food waste problem has changed this and created opportunities for food rescue companies in the U.S.

Case in point: Too Good To Go’s recent expansion westward. The company, originally started in Denmark, today announced its plans to expand across the United States, following a successful program in select East Coast states. The first stop is San Francisco, with 200-plus food businesses participating, including Mission Chinese, La Boulangerie, and Indie Superette.

Via the Too Good To Go app, users can browse surplus food options from participating restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores at the end of every day. They can then sign up for a “surprise bag” which includes surplus items from these businesses. Depending on the business from which it’s ordered, that bag could include pastries, extra sushi rolls, surplus produce, and many other items. 

Too Good to Go brought its app Stateside in 2020, starting in New York City. The company followed that move with a $31 million fundraise at the start of this year, specifically meant to enable a wider expansion around the U.S.

And while the concept of food rescue might be more commonplace Stateside compared to a couple years ago, it’s still unusual in the restaurant biz. Grocery delivery services like Misfits Market and Imperfect Foods address the grocery sector. Canada’s Flashfood app, based in Toronto, Ontario, similarly addresses surplus food in the grocery store via its U.S. partnership with Meijer. 

That leaves a wide-open opportunity for Too Good To Go when it comes to restaurants. After the San Francisco launch, the company will expand to Seattle on May 12 and Portland on May 19. The plan is to be in “many of the largest U.S. cities” by the end of this year.  

That expansion comes at a time when the conversation around food waste has gotten much louder. In the U.S., 35 percent of all food went to waste in 2019, the most recent year for data. ReFED points out that “a massive acceleration” is needed in order to address this problem and meet  national and international goals to reduce food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. That effort has to come from many different groups — government and regulatory bodies, food companies, restaurants, and tech companies alike.

Interested to learn who is innovating in that space to better help us reach that goal? Join The Spoon and ReFed on June 16 for a half-day virtual event discussing the businesses, innovators, and capital partners behind the country’s fight against food waste. Reserve a ticket today.

Researchers Develop Lactic Acid Bacterium to Extend Shelf Life of Food

Researchers at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark have developed a new biological method of extending the shelf life of food and fighting food waste. According to a blog post pubished this week on the university’s website, scientists have created a natural lactic acid bacterium that secretes nisin, an antimicrobial peptide, when grown on dairy waste (hat tip: Technology Networks).

This finding has a couple of different applications. First, as the university post writes:

Nisin is approved for use in a number of foods, where it can prevent the growth of certain spoilage microorganisms as well as microorganisms that make consumers sick. It can for instance inhibit spore germination in canned soups and prevent late blowing in cheeses—without affecting its flavour.

In addition to extending the life of foods, Nisin can help utilize existing inefficiencies in dairy production. Large amounts of whey are leftover during the cheesemaking process, and as the researchers point out, this leftover whey can now be used to create nisin.

For a more deep technical dive into this nisin research, you can check out this scientific article in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

This research could add to a growing number of commercially available products using biochemical approaches to extending the shelf life of food. Currently, Apeel uses a special plant-based coating to cover and preserve fresh food like avocados. Hazel Technologies, which raised $70 million this month, makes a sachet inserted with perishable food shipments that emits 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) gas to inhibit ethylene, which plants produce they age.

Food waste is a big problem around the world. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that 54 million tons of food goes to waste every year. Thankfully startups and researchers are making progress to combat this issue. To that end, The Spoon has partnered with ReFED, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to ending the food waste crisis, to hold a one day virtual summit highlighting some of the solutions coming to market. The Food Waste Insights + Innovation Forum is a free-to-attend half-day virtual event on June 16th from 9 AM to 1 PM PT (12 PM to 4 PM ET) and will feature some of the leading companies and organizations. Get your ticket today!