Households toss a lot of food, especially over the holidays. Think tank ReFED estimated the US alone would waste an estimated 320m pounds on Thanksgiving — that’s $550m worth, in this economy.
Even if you’re a die-hard meal prepper, it can be hard not to waste food. Plans change, moods change, and some foods have short shelf lives — looking at you, avocados.
So how do we improve?
There are some fun enterprise solutions. For example, Arda Biomaterials turns spent grains from the beer- and whiskey-making process into fabrics, while Pulp Pantry turns veggie waste into snacks.
But what about for households? Well, per AgFundNews, there are a variety of technologies in the works. They include:
- Smart devices — including fridges and fridge cameras — that track food freshness and inventory.
- Recycling devices that turn food waste into compost.
- Software and apps that track what foods users have, what recipes will use them up, and how fresh a product might be.
A couple others include Olio, an app for sharing surplus food with neighbors, and Bluapple, a device that goes in your fridge and absorbs ethylene gas, which produce emits as a signal to other plants to ripen.
The large-scale adoption of such tools will largely depend on how much consumers actually care about curbing waste and how much they’re willing to spend to do so.
Food labels…
… are also a problem.
Labels can often be confusing to consumers because there are ~50 variations, per The New York Times, such as “use by” or “sell by.” Also, each food company uses its own methodology and each state has its own labeling laws.
Thus, people often toss foods prematurely because they think these dates indicate they should, even though they’re still safe and tasty.
California will simplify its labeling system next year, and Congress is considering similar legislation.
Fun fact: The only food product with a standardized labeling system is baby formula.
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