2022 is the the year for a New Zealand upcycled food revolution

Upcycling

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".

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 from across the country's research institutes engaged with the Theme, and over 200 members of the public subscribed to our mailing list. The Theme has three subthemes:

(1) Metrics and Management, led by Professor Sheila Skeaff, which is about understanding how much food is being wasted, where it is being wasted, and its social, economic and environmental impacts.

(2) Technical Innovations, led by Professor Phil Bremer (Food Science), which uses the latest science and technology to provide food waste solutions.

(3) Social Innovations, led by myself (Consumer Food Science) which is using behavioural science to understand the drivers responsible for food waste to make recommendations on minimisation initiatives.

The Upcycled Food Lab

Spanning across all three areas is our dedicated Upcycled Food Lab, launched in 2021. At the beginning of the year, a team of Food Scientists led by Dr. Graham Eyres, and coordinated by Theme Ph.D. student, Grace Clare, worked with Citizen Collective, to explore the maximum amount of bread that could be substituted into an excellent tasting beer. Based on a series of product development trials, a "how-to-guide" for homebrewers was developed that substitutes 50% of the malt with bread. Using this recipe, 4.75 slices of bread are saved per 500ml of beer. Check out our Theme's Resource Hub on our website for our super popular bread-to-beer step-by-step homebrewer recipes and other project information. https://foodwaste-otago.org/resources

Some of our undergraduate students are also cooking up a storm with some awesome upcycled products. Third-year students Sydney Collin, Elizabeth Cunliffe, and Molly Goodisson co-founded 'Reshined Roots,' a startup working on upcycling 'ugly' carrots into tasty, crispy snacks. The trio were finalists of Start Up Dunedin's Audacious programme, which helps facilitate turning young entrepreneurs' ideas into reality. Excitingly, our commercial New Product Development Centre scientists, led by Associate Professor Pat Silcock, are currently working on a sugar syrup made from bread waste for use in the manufacturing sector that will have a dizzying array of applications… so watch this space!

Public engagement activities

As well as technical innovations in the Lab, our Upcycled Team have also been busy on several other fronts. We've been running a series of public engagement-type events to help educate the public on the benefits associated with upcycled foods. At Dunedin's 2021 International Science Festival, we ran an upcycled dining experience collaborating with Everybody Eats, a social dining pay-as-you-feel dining concept with restaurants in Auckland and Wellington. Among the three courses (all made by top chefs from surplus food) were products developed by our Upcycled Lab. Throughout the evening, experts from the Food Waste Innovation research theme talked to guests about the issue of food waste and the science behind the upcycled products they were sampling.

Gathering and sharing information

But it's not just the public that we need to educate about upcycling. It's the food industry and upcycling start-ups as well. One of the projects we've recently completed was a series of interviews with category managers at supermarkets to understand their perceptions about upcycled foods and the associated decision-making processes which influence whether these products are stocked. This information is valuable as these category managers are the gatekeepers to retail shelves.

The results provide insights into the barriers and opportunities for raw material. Product congruency is deemed important. For example, upcycled products should have sustainable packaging and a minimal carbon footprint. Upcycled products are perceived as having higher 'other-benefits' than 'self-benefits,' so consideration needs to be given to this in promoting such products. Consumers are reportedly still a little apprehensive about the safety and hygiene of products upcycled from 'waste,' so manufacturers will need to develop trust and understanding of the processing of upcycled food amongst consumers. Assurances and independent certifications (such as the Upcycled Association) will be critical. One of the things we've done with our Theme's Resource Hub is creating a series of talking abstracts/project overviews where the researchers explain the findings of their work in an easily digestible way. If you want to learn more about these findings but don't want to wade through the academic papers, this is a great way to learn more, so check these out. https://foodwaste-otago.org/resources/category/ Videos+and+Infographics.

In conclusion, our consumer insight studies all indicate that there appears to be sufficient demand in New Zealand to consider this an idea with exciting market potential.

Looking ahead

As upcycling becomes more accepted, the next focus will have to be to scale up the process and build a secure infrastructure. We must not underestimate that challenge; KMPG recently highlighted some of these challenges in their 2021 agribusiness report…

"There is a lack of innovative businesses looking to create new markets for good quality, fresh and edible food that doesn't meet the visual grade for retailers. It is expensive to set up these businesses in New Zealand, scaling up is challenging, regulation is stifling and the language 'food waste' puts consumers off the product… If we changed the conversation to upcycled foods and established standards so that entrepreneurs could gain credit for their impact, we might unlock a food system revolution!"

Consumer acceptance is vital Of course, we can produce the most innovative products and even convince retailers to stock them, but ultimately the success or failure of this sector will depend on consumer acceptance of these new products. Until recently, there was no consumer data on New Zealand consumer attitudes to upcycled foods, so our team got busy and ran a series of studies over the last couple of years. In sum, results show that most consumers view upcycling as unique and have positive initial reactions to the idea (which is considered a good indicator of whether a particular product will stand out in the market). The preference appears to be for upcycled products disconnected from the

In conclusion

I'm expecting 2022 to be the year that upcycled products take off here in Aotearoa and at Food Waste Innovations and we are excited to be providing the cutting-edge research required to make this happen. There is something for everybody to do in terms of tapping into new opportunities. The government needs to support the sector, being as it is at a very introductory level. Manufacturers for products from food waste may require co-funding and support. Retailers need to start carrying more upcycled products, to educate shoppers and consider soft launches and in-store tastings of new products. Manufacturers should work towards certification for these products and help raise awareness about the environmental and societal benefits that are specific to the consumer's values. Researchers must focus on solving R&D challenges and gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour. And as consumers, we must all vote with our wallets and buy upcycled products as they become available.

I will finish by making the point that upcycling alone is, of course, not going to save the world. Still, it will help and is considered by food waste experts as a serious weapon in our war on food waste. So, join me in raising a glass of bread-waste beer to that. Cheers!

Nga mihi nui, Miranda