upcycled food- interesting article

From trash to table: will upcycled food save the planet?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/22/us-food-waste-upcycling-snacks

Not nearly as quickly as people not juicing things or buying juice in the first place, but just buying and eating the whole vegetable/fruit!

That said, yes, North Americans waste a huge amount of edible food and I have seen a number of suggestions, including a company that promotes "ugly" fruit and veg in an effort to get "Class B" produce onto people's plates instead of never making it off the farm.

I just don't believe that turning it into more highly processed food is the healthiest option.

Thanks for sharing.  Getting more folks into this idea is great.

I call that Scrap cooking.

I think it is great that more folks are starting to make a business out of recycling foods.

I buy a lot of vegetables for an online business called Misfits. Misfits is also doing something similar.

I was looking for the topic that I started on this though I have not found the thread.

For folks that might be interested in recycling or upcycling food here are some threads:

https://permies.com/t/1675/composting-save-vegetable-scraps-veggie

https://permies.com/t/216892/Scrap-Cooking

Jay Angler wrote:I just don't believe that turning it into more highly processed food is the healthiest option.

or the best choice in terms of sustainability.

We see a lot of these articles in my corner of the world, with recipes about how to eat banana and pineapple peels, for example. I suppose that's fine if you really want to eat that stuff, but I wish we would see larger scale composting of waste instead or alternatives like feeding to rabbits or chickens. There was a local coop that kept both and accepted kitchen waste from the local neighbors: cooked food went to the chickens, raw food went to the rabbits. Eggs and meat were made available for sale at a discount, and compost/manure were given away for free (they also composted with coffee grounds from the shops in the local mall). I thought that was the best solution! Nothing is wasted, it all gets put to good use, and then you also have community involvement.

The second-rate vegetable issue is hard. I'm so fortunate in that I can buy "B" fruit and vegetables from a local small-scale retailer, and they make up the majority of our diet. They taste fabulous, often they're local, and they're not going to waste. The "A" fruit and veg are classified as "export quality" and either get exported or priced accordingly, so we don't eat them. Generally they're large and pretty but don't taste as good.

Still, I suppose every little bit helps and new uses are a good thing. Not so long ago whey was dumped down the drain here, and it's become a marketable product on its own now, for example. And this morning I just edited a press release about a new kind of adhesive made from waste from sugarcane pressings.

Jay Angler wrote:Not nearly as quickly as people not juicing things or buying juice in the first place, but just buying and eating the whole vegetable/fruit!


I just don't believe that turning it into more highly processed food is the healthiest option.

Yeah, my brother is a juicer, even gave me one that I gave away. I see the amount of fiber he just throws away and do not care for that.

As far as being a "healthy option" certainly not, but I guess the real point is to keep it out of the waste stream and make better use of it.

As far as composting it or feeding it to animals, that would be great, but not as profitable  so not being pursued as it is.