Kerry webinar preview: Inside the mission to eliminate food waste in a food-scarce world

29 Nov 2022 --- Kerry discusses the global paradox of food waste and food insecurity ahead of its webinar with NutritionInsight on December 6 (16:00 CET). The company elaborates on the possible solutions to the estimated €1 trillion (USD$1.045 trillion) a year problem of food waste, which, if solved, could feed an additional two billion people worldwide.

“Food waste is one of the greatest sources of inefficiency in our food system,” says Juan Aguiriano, group head of sustainability and technology ventures at Kerry Group. “There is a very disturbing global paradox between the increasing amount of edible food that is lost throughout the supply chain and the scarcity of food resulting in hundreds of millions of people suffering from malnutrition.”

“If we continue to produce food as we are today, we will need the equivalent of three planet earths to feed the growing population by 2050,” he continues. “We are living on borrowed time from future generations. Therefore, it is paramount that the food system undergoes rapid transformational change.”

Food systems account for around one-third of GHG emissions worldwide.A world of waste
According to Kerry, food systems generate a third of greenhouse gases (GHGs). GHGs have the potential to accelerate climate change, which some experts say will accelerate malnutrition.

Kerry intends to help lead the charge to close the loop that links food waste and malnutrition.

“The contribution of the current food system to environmental and social impacts such as climate change, resource use, access to fresh water, obesity and hunger means that as an industry, we must take urgent action to address the impacts of the products we produce and the way in which we produce them,” Aguiriano elaborates. 

“Food production is also responsible for a significant share of GHG emissions and global resource use, and yet it is estimated that a third of all food produced is lost or wasted,” he outlines. “As an industry, we need to instill responsible culture changes in our businesses and across our consumers.”

Furthermore, he states that as the world’s population, which recently hit eight billion, continues to grow, the foods we eat, the drinks we consume and how they are produced are coming under increased scrutiny.

“We need to make smart decisions today to deliver radical improvements to ensure the generations to come have a food system that meets their needs with the available resources.”

Sustainable solutions in the spotlight
Aguiriano says that food waste amounts are highest in developed markets and mainly occur during distribution, at the retail point and inside consumers’ homes.Eliminating food waste could feed an additional two billion people.

Due to this, he holds that addressing and solving the problem hinges on multiple factors, including the extension of food shelf life, changing consumer behavior and upcycling the by-products of food production.

Aguiriano further notes that food preservation with natural solutions could potentially extend the shelf life of meat and bakery by up to 50%, which could significantly impact food waste reduction.

“A significant proportion of food waste occurs in the home. Therefore, targeting consumer behavior and habits can have a substantial impact,” he says. “Small steps like enhancing awareness of the differences between use by and best before dates is a relatively simplistic but important step, so food is not discarded prematurely.”

“Technology is an effective means of influencing consumer behaviors, and we are seeing some interesting examples of that in the food waste context.”

“In this webinar, we have Dan Kurzrock, founder and CEO of Upcycled Foods, joining us to discuss his learnings and advice from starting up a company which creates value from upcycling food waste streams,” he concludes. “He will discuss how to identify value in by-products, choosing end applications, challenges and opportunities within the space.”

Listeners can discover more about reducing food waste and upcycling in Kerry’s webinar next week. You can register for the webinar here. 

By William Bradford Nichols