Article: Powder Extends Almost-Expired Food’s Shelf Life, Could Be Key To Ending Hunger
Topic: Waste
Each year people toss out billions of dollars in food waste. FoPo’s vision is to reduce food waste by extending the shelf life of food about to expire.
- The company, FoPo, receives cheap, nearly expired fruits and vegetables from grocery stores, processing them into a food powder, called FoPo, and selling that powder back to the markets to be consumed
- Farmers throw out billions of dollars in fruits & vegetables due to their outer appearance but the food is perfectly edible. Instead of throwing this into the landfills, they can be converted to food powder
- Shelf life can be extended from a couple of weeks to a couple of years, while still maintaining the same nutritional quality and taste
- The technology to freeze dry food is not new but it’s considered a premium food product. This new process of taking food that’s about to be discarded will lower the production costs, making it more affordable to feed people in low income countries
Stakeholders:
- FoPo company
- Food producers & retailers: farmers, supermarkets, restaurants
- Government food regulation agencies such as the FDA
Deployment
- Contract with grocery stores, supermarkets, and farmers to receive food that’s either about to be expired or is not up to the visual standard to be sold to customers
- Market the food product to engage community about the innovative waste reduction solution
- Scale up to mass production, sell back to grocery stores and restaurants
This is the best idea ever! Reminds me also of a product that I’ve tried before called Soylent which is marketed to be food to sometimes replace meals. I wonder if Soylent can use FoPo as a raw material and blend in their own product to reduce the costs of making the Soylent product
LikeLike