Upcycling
2022 is the year for a New Zealand upcycled food revolution Associate Professor Miranda Mirosa, Director of Food Waste Innovations and Co-Chair of NZ Food Waste Champions12.3, FNZIFST
Food waste is costing us You'll be aware that massive amounts of food, more than one-third of all current food production, is lost or wasted between farm and fork. I want to start by making the point that reducing this food waste matters — a lot. Globally, we lose around USD 1 trillion per year on wasted food. Food waste has enormous environmental and social consequences. For example, 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from food waste, which is why reducing food waste is widely considered to be one of the greatest solutions to climate change. To address this, governments, organisations and companies worldwide are rallying behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 12.3, which is to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. We have a group of Champions from the food supply chain committed to this goal in New Zealand. Many different stakeholders are engaged in a lot of inspiring food waste-reduction work at the moment. If you are interested in what's happening in this broader food waste context, then check out the NZ Food Waste Champions12.3 website: https:// www.nzchampions123.org/. On this site, you will find the reduction roadmap we released last year that showcases the work of each of the organisations that our Champions represent. In conjunction with the University of Otago, the Champions group also undertook a research project to map out food waste reduction solutions. We interviewed 30 representatives from New Zealand's food supply chain to identify opportunities and then proposed solutions for government, businesses, and consumers for each supply chain stage.
Upcycled foods gaining traction One food waste prevention action that is gaining considerable momentum for the food manufacturing sector is upcycling food. Upcycled foods are made from ingredients that would otherwise have ended up in a food waste destination. They are value-add products. A team of international experts officially defined upcycled food in 2020 for use in policy, research, and more. "Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment". 34
Food New Zealand
It is estimated that there are already over 400 upcycled products in the US marketplace. According to food artificial intelligence (AI) company, Spoonshot, interest in upcycling grew by 128% across business media in the past year, and a report produced by Future Market in 2019 revealed that the upcycled food market is worth $46.7 billion with an expected compound annual growth rate of 5% over the next ten years. The US, in particular, is starting to see the beginning of a massive swell of adoption and promotion of upcycled products by retailers. Moms, a retail chain with about 20 stores on the East Coast, has dedicated aisleend display units for upcycled food products in all their stores. As of 2021, you can buy food with a "Certified Upcycled" label on it. The new standard to identify authentic upcycled foods was launched by the International Upcycled Food Association: https://www.upcycledfood. org/. The Upcycled Certification Programme is the world's first thirdparty certification programme for upcycled food ingredients and products. As well as certification, the Association also supports businesses through its Upcycled Food Digital Marketing Toolkit, which contains a guide to upcycled food storytelling and marketing.
What's happening in New Zealand? So, internationally, there is a real buzz this year about upcycling but what's happening here at home? In New Zealand, we have organisations like the Bioresource Processing Alliance, Callaghan Innovation, and Venture Timaru's Sustainable is Attainable programme, working on or supporting research and development in this space. To date, we only have a handful of commercially available upcycled food products in the New Zealand market that would meet the official definition of upcycled foods. These include upcycled grain crackers (Rutherford & Meyer), pet food products, from producers such as Deja and Perfect Deli-fresh, and upcycled alcoholic beverages from Dunedin Craft Distillers, for example. Perhaps the best-known company in this space is Citizen Collective, whose brewers use surplus bread to make its ferments, then put beer by-products back into bread production. Another group working in this upcycled space is ours – the University of Otago Food Waste Innovation Research Theme: https://foodwasteotago.org/. Our goal is to harness the best scientific expertise to solve Aotearoa's food waste problems effectively. We have 50 investigators
