About to dive in to some 'upcycled' pizza at "Trashpie" Restaurant
Snapshot of food wasted in 1 month by typical American family
This waste was also found to have an environmental toll, with the volume of discarded food equivalent to the yearly use of 30 m acres of land and 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigated water. Rotting food not only denies nutrition to a vast population that needs it but also clogs up landfills and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Even more outrageous, 20 % of all household food waste is attributed to
"confusion over date labels" In other words, otherwise
intelligent Americans are tossing out their food because they are unable to
discern the difference between the labels: "use by" - a
safety flag, and "best by" - a measure of quality.
A more recent report in the AARP Bulletin observed that Americans toss
away one pound of food per day per household on average. That adds up to over
30 pounds a month and 360 pounds per year per family. At a cost estimated to be $640
/ year. That's a lot of money down the dumpster, especially given a
Federal Reserve warning four months ago that forty percent of purported
"middle class" families can't afford a $400 emergency payout.
But the food waste total in just the U.S. is even more deplorable, amounting to 40 percent of the nation's food production, or 35 million tons - at a total cost of $200 billion. Given so many people, families are food insecure, this is doubly outrageous.
Given food waste is also an unthinkable "luxury" in a world of 10 billion people - which soon may be coming,
There is no time to spare in coming up with solutions, NOW! I already noted in a previous posts the option of going to insect-based proteins, such as one might find in cricket burgers, e.g.
But given the persistent "ick" factor other options are surely needed to quell the problem of hundreds of tons of food wasted each and every day. Enter "upscaling" of food that would almost certainly have been wasted if not rescued.
The Upcycled Food Association, which celebrated 'World Upcycling Day' this past Saturday, has the answers. For example, educating Americans about the difference in labels, i.e. between "use by" - a safety flag, and "best by". Given that 70 pounds alone of food wasted per family per month could be salvaged if families didn't chuck foods because of label confusion, this is a biggie. But the group has even gone one better by issuing labels to the effect a qualifying product (say pot pies, to cakes to pizzas) is "upcycle certified". That means it's 100% fine to eat, no problems.
Take the pizza that's been upcycled seen in the photo. What's wrong with it? Why upcycled in the first place? Well, because no one at the supermarkets wanted to purchase "ugly" produce - whether deformed mushrooms, ugly or slightly soft tomatoes or discolored green peppers. But aside from the appearance there's not a damned thing wrong with the foods, so it goes into an upcycled pizza pie. Similar deformed veggies can also be cooked into a veggie pot pie. I mean, what would you prefer, one of those or one of John Phillips' cricket burgers? I'd take the veggie pot pie made with deformed veggies any day - and twice on Sunday.
According to Angie Crone, the association's chief exec, in respect of the certified seal of approval (quoted in Sunday Denver Post piece, p. A5):
"A lot of the food uneaten or thrown away in our supply chain is actually due to archaic cosmetic standards or perceptions of what we think is edible or quality food. So this 'upscale certified' is a mark you can see on the products whenever you go shopping- to understand how that company is reducing food waste in its supply chain."
Co-founder Carolyn Cotto adding (ibid.):
"Our first product was pulp left over from making soy milk. We turn that into high fiber, gluten free flour and we use that flour to make things like ready to eat cookies."
Which I've sampled already and can say these cookies are every bit as good, perhaps even more wholesome, than the highly sugared brand stuff you get - maybe in the same stores. The company's special flour is even featured in Salt and Straw's new salted caramel cupcakes.
There is little dispute that the upscaling food movement is an essential one now as resources, crops are ever more depleted, diluted from the effects of climate change. And also existing supplies become more limited and costly because of overpopulation. My bet is that the upcycling of foods will now - soon anyway - rival or exceed the edible insect agenda.
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