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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food waste

Meijer and Flashfood Expand Food Waste Program Across Grocery Stores

Grocery chain Meijer announced this week it is on track to complete its food waste reduction program with Flashfood this year, with plans to expand the initiative across all Meijer stores in the Midwest.

The program, which involves customers buying surplus Meijer food via the Flashfood app, originally launched in 2019 and was slated for a wider expansion in 2020. That expansion was delayed when COVID-19 hit, but Meijer is now expanding the program from its original Detroit, Michigan location to Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the rest of Michigan. 

Flashfood, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, also has “Flashfood zones” available in multiple provinces across Canada as well as in New York and Pennsylvania. The company works with grocery retailers to rescue surplus or cosmetically imperfect foods that would ordinarily go to the landfill.

From the consumer side, users first select their grocery store on the Flashfood app and set it as their location. They can then browse the foods available for purchase via the Flashfood program. Since these items are either surplus or unsellable (for cosmetic reasons) on the stores regular shelves, they are usually priced at a discount, sometimes 50 percent lower.

After selecting and paying for food, the user heads to their designated grocery store and confirms their order with a customer service or staff person. From there, they can retrieve their items from a Flashfood fridge, which is usually kept at the front of the store. As of right now, the process is somewhat manual, since users have to confirm their order with a human being at the store, rather than simply unlocking the fridge with a QR or text code via their smartphone.

The concept of rescuing then reselling cosmetically imperfect produce from the grocery store was, until recently, a fairly niche market in the U.S. The last year has seen the category expand, however. Too Good to Go launched in certain U.S. markets, while Imperfect Foods expanded its grocery e-commerce platform to include pantry staples, meat, and dairy items, in addition to rescued produce. Likewise, Misfits Market runs a robust e-commerce platform in the U.S. for reselling surplus food from grocery stores.

Flashfood’s partnership with Meijer, and this current expansion, will give Flashfood substantially more visibility in parts of the U.S. While the company has not confirmed as much, this could lead to partnerships with other major American grocery retailers in the future.

Skål! Gotland Spirits Launches Vodka Made From Food Waste

Gotland, Sweden-based Gotland Spirits this week launched a new liquor product called SPILL, which the company says is a “premium alcoholic beverage made from food waste.” The product, a vodka, became available to folks in Sweden on Feb. 16, according to materials sent to The Spoon.

To get this “truly sustainable” spirit, the company teamed up with Coop, one of Sweden’s largest grocery retailers. Gotland “rescues” surplus food from the retailer. Among the food types mentioned are pasta, crackers, fruit, and milk powder. 

“We thought, what if instead of producing new carbs, can we recycle what’s already out there,” Johan Johansson, founder of Gotland Spirits, said in a statement sent to The Spoon. By his account, the resulting vodka is on par with Russian luxury vodkas in terms of quality and smoothness.

The company did not provide extensive details on the technical process of creating booze from food waste, but the concept is similar to what other beer, wine, and spirits companies have done in the past: rescue food that would otherwise go to the landfill and use it in the distillation or brewing process to create the beverage. Misadventure Vodka, based in Southern California, makes vodka from rescued baked goods. On the beer side of things, a company called Toast makes craft beer from surplus bread.

Both the U.S. and the EU are similar in terms of where the most food gets wasted along the supply chain: at consumer-facing levels, including grocery stores. Food waste per capita in these regions totals to about 95-115 kg/year, compared to 6-11 kg/year in Subsaharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The EU specifically wastes around 88 million tons of food annually, or upwards of €143 billion, according to the European Commission.

Gotland Spirits is a relatively small distillery, so for now, at least, SPIL is only available in Sweden.

A Designer From Spain Has Turned Food Waste Into a Skincare Line

Redistributing cosmetically imperfect produce via grocery and restaurant services is one way to keep food out of landfills. Turning those cosmetically imperfect fruits and veggies into actual cosmetics is another method, and one Spanish designer Júlia Roca Vera is taking with her Lleig skincare line.

Dezeen, a website covering all things design, profiled the process Vera used to make four different skincare products from a single piece of fruit, in this case an orange that was discarded because it was cosmetically unacceptable by supermarket standards. From that orange, Vera, who is currently a design and engineering student, created moisturizer, a soap, a potpourri, and a juice for drinking.

Lleig (Catalan for “ugly”) is as much a conceptual design project as it is a skincare line, with products coming in reusable clay containers and the suggestion to complete certain rituals during the skincare process. Vera worked with Espigoladors, a social enterprise that “rescues” cosmetically imperfect produce, to source the food used for the project. While she focused on an orange, she told Dezeen that her process would also work will apples, bananas, carrots, and other fruits and vegetables.

There’s no way to purchase Lleig right now, as it’s more design statement than scalable product at the moment. The larger point of the project is to raise awareness about why we throw certain foods away as well as what can be done with those items instead of tossing them in the landfill. Vera told Dezeen that she “hopes to encourage a holistic approach to beauty that prioritises health and wellbeing over external appearance.” That goes for humans and produce items alike. 

In the U.S., rescuing cosmetically “unfit” produce is still a fairly new area of the food industry, with its main players companies like Misfits Market and Imperfect Foods that sell this rescued food as discounted groceries. Whether skincare made from food waste every becomes a scalable notion remains to be seen. However, the idea does give us one more reason to keep food out of the landfill.

Sustainable E-Grocer Imperfect Foods Increases Series D Round to $110M

Imperfect Foods has increased its recently announced series D round to $110 million, up from $95 million. The increased round now includes two additional investors, Hamilton Lane and Blisce, and brings Imperfect’s total funding to $229.1 million.

The company says it will increase the production capacity of its online grocery store and improve the shopping experience for customers. 

Imperfect Foods’ evolution from food redistribution service to full-stack online grocer started in 2019 when the company began offering “rescued” foods beyond produce items: meats, pantry staples, and dairy, for example. The idea was to extend Imperfect’s original modus operandi — rescuing surplus food and selling it to consumers for a discount — to any type of food, whether an avocado or an unused cheese plate rescued from an airline.

Rescuing food is one tactic in the fight against food waste. Surplus and so-called “ugly” groceries, inventory at restaurants, and, yes, cheese plates and other food items from airplanes, would typically go to the landfill, contributing to the world’s multibillion-dollar food waste problem. Redirecting that cosmetically imperfect but perfectly edible food to consumers also informs the business models of Misfits Markets, Flashfood, Too Good to Go, and several others.

More investment dollars for Imperfect and these other companies suggests U.S. consumers are receiving the concept of ugly-food redistribution more in 2021 than they have in the past. Historically, the category has been more popular in Europe. However, with online grocery projected to be 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025 and awareness of our food waste problem increasing, more folks are willing to pay less for their food items, even if they come with imperfections.

Imperfect said in a press release sent to The Spoon that the Series D round, including the add-on investments, will help the company build “the most sustainable online grocery service.” Currently, users in parts of the U.S. can sign up at the company’s e-commerce storefront to receive deals on grocery delivery. Imperfect currently serves the West South Central, Midwest, and Northeast regions and the West Coast. 

ReFED: Food Waste has ‘Leveled Off’ Since 2016, But More Must Be Done

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, according to ReFED’s newly launched data hub, the Insights Engine. But more must be done to meet the country’s goal of cutting food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

First announced last year, the Insights Engine is an online hub for data and analysis related to the global food waste problem. Among the other findings ReFED released today:

  • In 2019, 35 percent of food went uneaten or unsold. That’s the equivalent of throwing away $408 billion or 1.9 percent of U.S. GDP.
  • More than 50 percent of waste at the farm level is from food that does not get harvested but is perfectly edible.
  • Seventy percent of food waste at restaurants and foodservice businesses comes from customers not finishing their meals.
  • At-home food waste remains the largest generator of food waste in the U.S.

ReFED estimates that an annual investment of $14 billion will be needed to implement the kinds of solutions that will reduce food waste by 45 million tons annually. The Insights Engine reviews over 40 of these solutions, analyzing them based on things like net economic benefit, greenhouse gas emissions reduced, jobs created, and meals recovered. The Engine also provides a directory of organizations helping fight food waste, a tool that tracks current and upcoming food waste policies, and an “impact calculator” that puts into numbers the impact of food waste on the climate, economy, and population.

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of edible food worldwide goes to waste each year, and experts predict this number will jump to 2.1 billion by 2030. Solutions to this problem span everything from food rescue companies to technologies for preservation, cold storage, harvest and post harvest, and many other ideas, tools, and processes.

As a companion to the Insights Engine, ReFED also released its “Roadmap to 2030” framework today, which will help the organization implement the solutions found in the Insights Engine. It outlines seven “key action areas” for fighting food waste over the next 10 years, and also includes a financial analysis of where investments (public, private, philanthropic, and capital) should be directed.

Food Tech News: The World’s Largest Piece of Cultured Meat, Coca-Cola Delivery Via Drone

Welcome to this week’s Food Tech News round-up! We found some interesting tidbits this week, including the world’s largest piece of cultured meat, Coca-Cola’s drone delivery, Carnival Cruise’s step towards sustainability, and funding for HIPPEAS chickpea snacks.

NovaMeat produces the world’s largest piece of cultured meat

3D meat printer NovaMeat announced that it had successfully created what it is calling the world’s largest piece of cultured meat, with a volume of 22500 mm3 (1.4 cubic inches). NovaMeat has so far created 3D-printed steak and pork made from plant-based proteins, but is now creating hybrid meat alternatives through the combination of plant-proteins and cells from cultivated meat. After announcing this accomplishment, the company shared it will hold an investment round in the next few months and aims to increase the production speed of its 3D-printed meat to 100Kg/hour.

Photo from Coca-Cola’s website

Coca-Cola delivers coffee flavored soda via drone

Coca-Cola partnered with Walmart and drone provider DroneUP to make aerial deliveries of its new beverage, a coffee-infused soda. The drone was launched from a Walmart in Coffee County, Georgia, and delivered to a select few consumers located within a mile of the Walmart. The coffee soda is infused with Brazilian coffee, and comes in three flavors, caramel, dark blend, and vanilla – with a sugar-free option in the vanilla and dark blend flavors. The 12oz cans are shelf-stable and offer 69mg of caffeine. The soda was trialed successfully in Japan in 2018, and as of it January 25th, 2021, the Coca-Cola with Coffee beverage is now available in the US.

Photo of a digester from BioHiTech’s website

Carnival Cruise Lines and Princess Cruise Lines aim to reduce food waste through BioHiTech’s food digesters

BioHiTech, which offers technology solutions and services to combat the environmental issues of landfill waste, will provide 14 cruise ships from Carnival Cruise Lines and Princess Cruise Lines with its Revolution Series food digesters for food waste onboard. The digesters process food waste through odorless, aerobiotic digestion and convert the waste into a liquid that can be drained into the cruise ship’s wastewater line. This prevents food waste from reaching the landfill and saves the cruise line costs associated with waste management. The order from BioHiTech totals approximately $2 million USD and will be completed in Q2 of 2021.

Photo from HIPPEAS’ Instagram

HIPPEAS raises $50M for chickpea snacks

Whole Foods predicted that chickpea would trend as an ingredient in 2021, and they certainly were correct. Chickpeas are being used in everything from alternative eggs to snack foods, and HIPPEAS Organic Chickpea Snacks announced that it has raised $50 million in funding this week from The Craftory Limited. The company will use these funds to increase production, expand distribution, and add to its positive impact projects. All of the company’s products are organic, vegan, gluten-free, and products include flavored chickpea puffs and chickpea tortilla chips. I can personally attest that HIPPEAS products are delicious, and it is too easy to crush an entire bag of the vegan white cheddar chickpea puffs.

UK Researchers Kickstart a New Project to Study and Fight At-Home Food Waste Behaviors

The United Kingdom has set up a national research project to study the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on food waste and develop methods for helping consumers better manage that food waste. Researchers from the University of Leeds have teamed up with two environmental organizations — Zero Waste Scotland and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) — for the 18-month-long research project.

According to a press release, researchers will examine consumer behavior around food waste both during and after lockdown periods in the UK, and use those findings to develop new ways to help consumers fight food waste and change their behaviors in the home. The project has received £328,000 (~$448,000 USD) in funding, a sum that includes a £268,000 (~$366,000 USD) from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project is “part of the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19.”

Part of the project’s inspiration comes from earlier research by WRAP showing that self-reported levels of food waste in the UK fell by 34 percent during the country’s first Covid-19 lockdown. “While we understand some of this behaviour, we want to broaden our knowledge of why the changes came about, and how we can build on this to help people prevent more food going to waste in future,” Dr Gulbanu Kaptan, one of the individuals leading the new research project, said in a statement.

As is the case in the U.S., the bulk of food waste in Britain happens inside consumers’ own homes. Curbing it will come from a range of different approaches and solutions. Right now, some approaches include smarter storage systems a la Mimica, meal-planning tools like Kitche and Meal Hero, and fridge appliances that can track food inventory more precisely.

All of these methods have varying success rates. University of Leeds’ new project appears to be focused more on the consumer behavior aspect of food waste than on individual tech tools, however. 

For the new project, around 1,500 people across the UK will take part in a survey by relating details of how they choose, store, manage, and cook food. Roughly 30 people will take part in more detailed interviews and will also keep “diaries” of their household food waste.

Just Salad Debuts Meal Kit Brand to Fight Food Waste, Plastic Packaging

Fast-casual chain Just Salad has launched a meal kit brand it is calling the “next generation of meal kits.” Dubbed Housemade, the line is available now exclusively via Grubhub, according to a blog post from Just Salad.

The standout feature of the new meal kit line (which launched very, very quietly this month), is its purportedly waste-free packaging. Anyone who has ever ordered a traditional meal kit knows that you’re typically left with a mound of plastic, cardboard, and dry ice after the food is prepped.

In contrast, Just Salad says the Housemade line uses “zero plastic packaging.” Instead, meals arrive in curbside recyclable or compostable packaging, and labels on the packages are water soluble. Recipe cards contain disposal instructions for the packaging.

In terms of what actually arrives in a kit, it’s a bit of a cross between a prepared meal delivery and a more traditional kit. For example, the Housemade Mediterranean Chicken Salad comes with uncooked chicken, rice, vegetables, and other ingredients. Items are pre-portioned out, so that the customer just has to put them into single pan and cook for 15 minutes. Since Just Salad won’t be using dry ice or other cold storage materials for its packages, meals are meant to be delivered within an hour. There is no subscription to purchase the Housemade kits, which start at $10.49 for a single serving. Users can simply head over to Just Salad’s page on the Grubhub app or website.

Meal kits as a category has long been championed as a potential avenue for fighting food waste because ingredients are pre-portioned and users get exactly what they need for each meal. The tradeoff for that convenience up to now has been excess amounts of packaging waste, which rather nullifies any other sustainable aspects of the meal kit.

Just Salad said in its blog post that its Housemade kits have “91 percent less packaging by weight than the average meal kit.” Again, the reason that is possible is because kits are have few ingredients, are available in single-serving sizes, and are meant to be delivered within an hour. Traditional meal kits, on the other hand, serve entire families, usually require a subscription, and are shipped across the country. All of those factors require more protective packaging (insulating, shipping, etc.) for any given order. Just Salad’s tactic of using its own locations to fulfill orders and delivering those orders within an hour automatically removes some of the packaging problem from the process.

In its blog post, Just Salad said meal kits “have a crucial redeeming feature,” which is fighting food waste, but that the industry must “rethink the meal kit concept” in order to effectively cut down on packaging waste.

Surplus Food Marketplace Too Good to Go Raises $31M to Expand in the U.S.

Copenhagen, Denmark-based Too Good to Go announced today it has raised €25.7 million (~$31 million) to expand its surplus food marketplace that fights food waste. The investment was led by /blisce, with participation from existing investors and employees. 

Too Good to Go’s main mission is fighting food waste. The company partners with hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and other businesses that have surplus food items at the end of each day. Those businesses can list food on Too Good to Go’s B2C marketplace at discounted prices. Consumers then simply browse the marketplace via the Too Good to Go app or website, place an order, and retrieve their food from the merchant at a designated time.

Too Good to Go already operates in 15 countries around the world, including several in Europe, including the U.K., Spain, and Italy. The expansion enabled by this new funding will focus mainly on the U.S., where the company has a smaller presence. It launched in New York City and Boston in September 2020, and has since also moved into parts of New Jersey. Specific cities and locations for this latest expansion were not named, though Too Good to Go’s roster of partners includes everyone from local grocers to massive chains like Hilton, Coop, Le Pain Quotidien, Yo! Sushi, and many others.

Surplus food marketplaces are not as prevalent in the U.S. as they are in other countries, despite the fact that the majority of food waste in this country happens at consumer-facing levels. Flashfood, a Canada-based company that offers a similar surplus food business, operates in some parts of the U.S. Karma is another Scandinavia-based surplus food app, but as yet it does not have a presence in the U.S.

All of which is to say, the opportunity is still wide open for Too Good to Go and other companies bringing the surplus food concept Stateside. 

China’s New Food Waste Tactic: Fining Restaurant Customers Who Order Too Much Food

Food waste is a global problem not limited to any country in particular, and it is estimated that around half the fruits and vegetables produced annually go to waste. In China alone, 35 million tons of food is wasted every year, with half of that occurring at retail and other consumer-facing places like restaurants. This week, news surfaced that the country has developed its own particular way of combatting that waste via new law that fines customers for leaving food on their plates at restaurants.

Xi Jinping, a politician and the paramount leader of China, recently submitted a law to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress that aims to reduce food waste in restaurants. The law would allow restaurants to charge customers who order too much food and leave leftovers on their plates (However, customers would still be able to take home leftovers).

It is currently unclear how much a restaurant could charge a customer. On the other hand, restaurants could be charged up to 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,500 USD) for offering deals that encourage customers to order excessive food. A third part of the law would impose the largest fee of 100,000 yuan (15,000 USD) for T.V. ads or shows and radio or online commercials that promote overeating (like “all you can eat” buffets, for example).

Xi Jinping has been targeting the issues of food waste for months now, with Operation Empty Plate launching this past summer. This operation banned the streaming of online videos of famous Chinese mukbangers, who are online performers that eat excessive amounts of food in one sitting. It also encouraged customers to order one less plate than the number of people in their party at family-style restaurant meals.

The most recent law submitted by Xi Jinping is still a draft, but it is deemed likely to pass. There are a handful of other countries using laws to prevent food waste. For example, in 2016, France banned supermarkets from throwing out edible food, and those who break this law can be charged  €3,750 ($4,500 USD) per infraction. A law passed in Italy in 2016 made it easier for food retailers to donate to food banks, even if the food was past its “best by” date. Five states in the U.S. have passed laws that helped keep food waste out of landfills by improving compost infrastructure and rescuing edible waste for consumption.

China’s potential new law cracks down harder than its original Operation Empty Plate, and the food waste fines are a new concept for the country. With our supersized everything, massive restaurant serving sizes, and the beloved all-you-can-eat buffets, it makes me wonder if the U.S. would ever be able to adopt any type of food waste laws countrywide. Food waste laws being implemented by countries are a recent development in the past few years, and it will be fascinating to see if other countries begin adopting laws in the upcoming years.

Capital One Ventures Makes First Impact Investment in Food Waste Specialist Goodr

Capital One Ventures, the venture arm of financial services giant Capital One, has invested in food waste specialist Goodr. The investment, the amount of which was not disclosed, was announced via a Medium post by partner Adam Boutin.

From the post:

Jasmine and her team are tackling one of the most baffling paradoxes — 80 billion pounds of food is ending up in our landfills every year, meanwhile 40 million Americans are food insecure. While most of us are aware that food waste and hunger are massive problems (with both environmental and societal implications), the scale & complexity of the issues is astonishing….

The investment marks the first move by Capital One Ventures into impact investing. According to Boutin, who is leading the impact investing efforts for the venture arm, they plan on making more in coming months in the areas of financial inclusion, environmental sustainability and future of work.

We’ve been writing about Goodr here at The Spoon for some time, in part because the company is one of the first startups to utilize blockchain as a way to better track food and help reduce waste. Here’s how company CEO Jasmine Crowe described the company’s platform back in a 2018 interview:

Goodr is a sustainable waste management platform that leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger. We provide an end-to-end solution for businesses seeking to reduce their overall waste, save money and empower their local community.

Our technology coordinates the collection and distribution of food donations. Unlike our competitors, Goodr’s platform also provides an IRS audit-friendly donation record, real-time food waste analytics, and community impact reports thanks to blockchain.

In addition to providing a technology forward platform for helping corporations reduce how much food they throw out, Goodr’s also extremely active on activating partnerships in communities of need to make sure the food ends up in the right place. It’s been inspiring to watch Crowe and her team spring into action over the past year to help those hit hard by COVID-19 with efforts like their pop up stores and emergency meal kits.

Goodr is one of a number of startups in the food waste and sustainability space that are getting extra attention nowadays from investors. While food waste reduction and innovation hasn’t always gotten as much investor attention some of the other food tech spaces, COVID-19 shined a light on the fragility of the food system and made it even more clear how reducing waste made good economic sense.

Full Harvest Partners With Danone to Launch Yogurt Made From ‘Rescued’ Produce

Full Harvest, a B2B service that rescues imperfect produce, announced this week it has teamed up with Danone to launch a yogurt made from food that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Called Two Good ‘Good Save,’ the yogurt will be part of Danone’s Two Good line. Full Harvest said in a press release sent to The Spoon that this is the first dairy product to use 100 percent rescued produce.

Full Harvest is best known for its online marketplace that sells imperfect and surplus produce rescued from farms. The company works directly with farmers to identify the fruits and vegetables that will go to waste, then connects those farmers with food producers via its marketplace. Food producers creating products from Full Harvest-rescued goods come with a seal of verification. As yet, the marketplace is a business-to-business operation.

The initial product from the Full Harvest-Danone partnership will use California-grown Meyer lemons that would have otherwise gone to waste due to cosmetic imperfections, overproduction, or a lack of secondary markets for the farmer.

The sources of food waste and loss varies by region. While the bulk of waste in the U.S. happens at consumer-facing levels, the Full Harvest-Danone partnership nonetheless shows that there is also work to be done in curbing waste long before food reaches stores, restaurants, and homes. 

Full Harvest, meanwhile, is one of a growing number of companies rescuing so-called imperfect foods from going to the landfill. Incorporating those items into food production is one tactic. Other food-rescue companies, like Imperfect Foods and Too Good to Go, work further down the supply chain, collecting surplus food from grocery stores and restaurants and selling it at discounted prices to consumers. Imperfect went as far as to release a holiday snack box this year featuring treats that taste great but just happen to look a little less than conventionally perfect.

Danone’s Two Good ‘Good Save’ lemon product is available now. Additional flavors are slated for 2021.