How the Industry Is Tackling Food Waste

“If consumers could trace how long ago and where their meat was slaughtered, packaged, and distributed, or if they could see what date their milk was produced and which farm it came from, they may reconsider throwing away food that is safe to eat, reducing waste,” ABB’s Simonis says.

A Comprehensive Approach to Food Waste

Everyone, from governments, to food processors, manufacturers, and packing providers, to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers can play a role in reducing food loss and waste, according to recommendations from the World Resources Institute aimed at halving food loss and waste by 2030.

The report, released in August, recommends that packaging manufacturers expand use of coatings and resins to extend shelf life and make available a wider variety of resealable options. Researchers could develop innovative products from perishable items, such as fruits and vegetables, to promote whole food utilization, it stated, and policymakers could support standardized date labeling practices and increase investment in agricultural research to reduce post-harvest loss.

But this isn’t to suggest that governments, including the U.S., have been idle. The USDA and EPA, for example, have run programs to reduce food loss and waste since at least 2013, when they launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. Thus far, the project has signed up more than 4,000 businesses, schools, and other organizations.

For years, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has been funding and conducting research on new technologies to reduce food waste. Some of the innovations include development of a fruit- and vegetable-based powder to inhibit spoilage of fresh-cut produce, active packaging to extend fruit and fresh-cut produce shelf life, and development of an optical analyzer to help growers assess crop maturity and quality to determine optimal harvest time and post-harvest handling/processing procedures.

Meanwhile, companies large and small are developing better approaches to reducing food waste. Chicago-based startup Hazel Technologies, for one, is developing sachets that can be dropped into bulk crates of fruit and vegetables to inhibit formation of ethylene, and triple the amount of time produce stays fresh.