Upcycled Food: Turning Leftovers into Delicious Climate-Smart Solutions
It’s an ugly truth: we waste a lot. Leftovers go directly in the trash, food spoils in supermarkets, we throw out tons and tons of produce. Globally, we waste 30% of agricultural land growing food that is never going to be eaten. In the U.S. alone, Americans generated 91.2 million tons of surplus food in 2023. The overwhelming majority of it goes into landfills, incinerators, down drains, or is left to rot in fields. Most consumers actually want to reduce their food waste—they just don’t often know how.
What’s the solution? According to the Upcycled Food Association (UFA) and Upcycled Food Foundation (UFF) we can accelerate the upcycled food economy with innovative ways to stop food waste. Founded in 2019 to prevent food loss and waste across the supply chain, the two non-profits work in conjunction: UFF advances research initiatives that help to maximize food waste reduction through upcycling and drives public consumer education campaigns, while UFA supports and connects over 200 members in 14 countries. Together, they claim to leverage market forces to prevent food waste by coordinating hundreds of global leaders and empowering millions of consumers to take action to prevent climate change with the products they buy.
They began by defining upcycled foods and grew to expand access to upcycled products and ingredients. According to the initiative, upcycled products prevent food waste by creating new, high-quality products out of surplus food. The organizations work with members and stakeholders spanning businesses and organizations of all sizes, whether they have an established upcycled product or ingredient or if they are exploring where to begin. According to the initiative, as the hub of the global upcycled industry, UFA propels innovation by providing resources and sharing best practices, connecting surplus ingredients and byproducts supply and demand, and promoting collaboration across industries.
Reducing food waste is a matter of global importance in the fight for climate change. The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8% of global greenhouse emissions. Reducing food waste is one of the largest potential climate change solutions across all sectors. The initiative states they developed the standard for the first global certification for upcycled foods, which launched as Upcycled Certified in North America 2021 and has grown to global use since. They now work in partnership with Where Food Comes From, which administers Upcycled Certified as of December 2023.
According to the initiative, since its launch, over 560 Upcycled Certified products and ingredients developed by over 100 companies have diverted 1.9M tons of food waste. Leftovers just got a lot more interesting.
Learn more about Upcycled Food.
Written by Sarah Souli
Images provided by Upcycled Food
