Page 136 - FoodFocusThailand No.199 October 2022

SCOOP

Fighting Food Waste and Creating New Product
Compostable Bioplastic Made from Waste Potatoes
Australian biomaterials company has created a compostable
bioplastic alternative wrap. It is a transparent packaging
consisting of starch extracted from potato peels mixed with
other ingredients including used cooking oil, cassava starch,
and biopolymer additives to change the polymer structure
to be suitable for fresh products. This packaging has
similar textural and
performance qualities
to petroleum-based
plastic clingfilm.
When the wrap has
reached the end of
its life, it can be
composted in landfills
within 180 days.
humidity in real time. A first-expiry, first-out (FEFO) material Cracker Made with Spent Grains Spent grains are a
picking order is also vital for getting the most out of your goods valuable by-product of the beer-making process. They are
before they go bad. So, employees should be instructed on the rich in amino acids, protein, fiber, and, most importantly,
importance of this measure. flavor. To start the brewing
process, brewers steep
Limit Overfilling and Giveaway No food and super high-quality grains, like
3 beverage business would want to be accused of barley, in water. They then
shortchanging customers by underfilling their bottles or including strain this mixture, keeping
a lower item count than advertised. For that reason, many the liquid to make beer and
manufacturers resort to hedging on the side of excess and discarding the spent grains.
allowing some tolerance for overfilling packages. Still, the truth It turns out these grains are
is that this giveaway is another significant source of waste. To still incredibly flavorful, so it was created into crackers
determine volumes and quantities, the producer should turn to providing healthy, sustainable, and delicious food.
IoT-enabled scales and digital imaging devices that can produce Pet Food from Salmon Skin Snacks made with salmon
reliable results and pipe them into your real-time database for skin and some parts of fresh fish are rich in omega-3 fish oil,
flagging errors. You’ll also want to make sure that your recipes which is helpful to keep the skin and fur of pets like dogs and
are finely tuned and do not include excess amounts of any cats healthy. On average, 30-40% of the fish, including the
ingredients. backbone, part of the tail, the edges, the sides, the part that
connects with the stomach, and some tougher parts of the
Repurpose and Recycle While some food will fish, that have more
4 inevitably have to be scrapped due to contamination or fibers and skin,
quality issues, there’s also great potential to repurpose items cannot be used by
that are imperfect but still safe to eat. Moreover, the producer the restaurant. So,
should also consider rerouting by-products from the manufacture this waste was
to be used as raw materials to produce other products. produced for snacks
or cookies with pet-
Streamline Your Supply Chain One final tactic for friendly.
5 cutting back on your food waste is optimizing the flow of Eco-friendly Cycle Helmet from Mycelium and Hemp
materials from suppliers to facilities and downstream to their Dutch design office has developed a bicycle helmet from
final destinations in retail and food service. Transportation and biomaterials that, unlike polystyrene helmets, can be
service disruptions continue to be an issue in the pandemic produced without fossil fuels and composted after use.
era. To improve this issue, food companies could try to work
with more local suppliers to reduce travel time, distance, and
fuel consumption. That should also help with getting your
materials timely, allowing you to make good use of them before
spoilage or expiration.

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