A waste-free extraction method for plant-based protein | Edible Food Coating to reduce food loss | Ai-based Micro-Stores to reduce food waste — Prevention of Food Waste in more than one way.
For many people, food waste has become a habit: buying more food than needed, letting fruits and vegetables spoil at home, and taking larger portions than one can eat. But food is wasted not only at the consumption stage but at every stage from the creation of the raw ingredient to consumption at homes and restaurants.
Every country wastes food at every stage where globally, 1/3rd of the world’s food is wasted per year, i.e. 1.3 billion tons of food which costs $1 trillion in loss.
We must enter a ‘Preventive’ mode rather than a ‘Management’ mode for Food Waste in order to reduce the wastage of food at every stage. In the end, food waste not only is a loss of food but is a waste of water and energy that goes into growing, harvesting, packing, and transporting the food. Additionally, the waste food that goes to the landfills and rots begins to produce Methane, a Greenhouse Gas that is more potent than Carbon Dioxide. While Greenhouse gases act as an insulating blanket on the earth, the rise of these gases, like Methane, warm up the earth to an alarmingly higher level…..a word comes to mind? Wasting food contributes 6-8% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and ultimately contributes to Global Warming and Climate Change.
Prevention is better than cure…..especially when it is hard to cure what is happening!
#1 – PREVENTION AT PRODUCTION STAGE – No Part of the plant is left out with this waste-free extraction method
Gavan Technologies, an Israel-based FoodTech startup has developed an extraction method for plant-based protein that is waste-free and enables them to take any plant source, isolate and extricate multiple proteins and other valuable components until the source is fully consumed. The company recently demonstrated the technology in a pilot trial with lentils. It yielded a 92% protein isolate extraction that included complex carbohydrates, fibre, minerals, and fat that were turned into a neutral, gluten-free flour. It also extracted a “high-functioning, protein-rich” emulsifier with properties similar to aquafaba, made from chickpea water, that performs like egg whites.
KNOW MORE about how this innovation can help food waste and what plant-based Alt-Proteins can be made
#2 – PREVENTION IN POST HARVEST STAGE – Multiply shelf-life of food with innovative food coatings
Berkeley-based Akorn Technologies has received investment from Casablanca, Morocco-based UM6P Ventures for its multifunctional, natural edible food coatings made with upcycled, sustainable, and abundant non-GMO corn by-products and other plant materials. It substantially reduces post-harvest crop loss and food waste by slowing produce ripening speed, reducing moisture loss, maintaining firmness and colour, and inhibiting bacterial and fungal growth. At the same time, it delivers superior flavour and texture and preserves the nutritional value of fresh fruits and vegetables. This completely plant-based, patent-pending technology is already approved for use on a wide range of fruits and vegetables in both the U.S. and the European Union (EU).
BioMaterial Technologies can help prevent food waste to a great extent at every stage of production, from seed to full grown stage of the fruit or vegetable and is on the rise to help prevent wastage.
KNOW MORE about how Akorn Technologies does this
#3 – PREVENTION AT CONSUMPTION STAGE – Reduce Food Waste with Grab-and-Go Market concept
LA-based FooDoo is looking to reduce waste with a Grab & Go market with its FooDoo’s vending refrigerators. The AI-based microstores can store up to 500 items and are set to launch in Los Angeles this September. FooDoo has teamed up with several ghost kitchens across the city that will cook ready-to-eat meals to be stored in FooDoo’s fridges where a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag is attached to the meal and all the information about the meal, including the name, its ingredients and its expiration date, is linked to the tag. FooDoo’s technology allows the team to forecast user demands, and provide the ghost kitchens that provide meals with an accurate production plan for the next week.
Philadelphia-based, ClearCOGS is also contributing to the prevention of food waste at the consumption stage by providing restaurants with ‘Easy and Accurate’ daily food-prep forecasts in order to prevent the wastage of food and to save money.
“Profitability and sustainability — I think most people look at them and say they’re opposite things. We don’t look at it that way. In the restaurant world, being more efficient makes you more profitable; you’re wasting less food, and you’re more sustainable. So, how can we leverage data to make your restaurant more efficient?” – Matt Wampler, founder & CEO of ClearCOGS
KNOW MORE about these FooDoo’s Micro Stores and how they prevent food wastage
Published by
Andrea Pillai Budding VC | FinTech | MedTech | FoodTech
See Full Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/foodtech-fridays-edition5-andrea-pillai/
