DailyDirt: Making Use Of Food Waste
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
A terrible amount of our food supply goes to waste. It’s not just unsold produce that rots in a grocery store. All along our food chain, we throw away edible material. Efforts to reclaim those loses are sometimes met with some disgust (eg. pink slime), but finding uses for food stuff that would otherwise end up in landfill should be a noble pursuit. Here are just a few projects that could eat up some of our uneaten leftovers.
- Black soldier flies could be used to eat all kinds of biowaste — from brewer’s grain (leftover from beer making) to slaughterhouse waste. These insects are more efficient than rendering plants, and then their protein-rich bodies can be fed to farm animals. [url]
- In the UK, there’s a online marketplace for food that is beyond its advertised “sell by” date. The food is perfectly safe to eat, and this site was really popular during the Great Recession. [url]
- Some food waste is being processed into biofuel and other chemicals. Starbucks Hong Kong and The Climate Group are working together to find ways to re-use coffee grounds and waste baked goods. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: biofuel, biowaste, black soldier fly, expired food, food, leftovers, rendering plant, the climate group, waste
Companies: starbucks
Comments on “DailyDirt: Making Use Of Food Waste”
Food in landfills will someday turn into petroleum for our insect overlords….
I’ve eaten canned food that was a year or two past the date on the can and it was fine. I recently passed up some that was 13-14 years old though…
Food Waste
Food waste is a cultural issue, food that is packaged in most cases is still good well pass sell by dates, stores will not take the time to sell it at reduced cost, or give it to food pantries.
Brewers grain is not waste, but a highly concentrated feed stock in the cattle, chicken, and pig industry.
Waste in vegetables and fruit stocks in stores comes from not rotating stock.
Re: Food Waste
“Best before” means “this is guaranteed to not differ sensibly in taste or quality, within this period”. It does not mean “bad after this date” indeed.
I’ve once found 70-years-old chocolate that was perfectly fine to use. Just a little whitened, thus, better to use for cooking or hot cocoa than eating directly.
Honey does bear use-by dates, for some demented reason. Honey has been found in 2000 years old roman-era galleons, still perfectly conserved. Go figure why the health authorities demand an use-by date on a product that keeps basically for ever.
Japanese experience
Japanese also have experience recycling food waste. Because they have a small country and lack of resources.
Food Waste
Food waste should be disposed off! Simple.