Upcycling: A Sustainable Second Chance for Food
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Upcycling food is the coolest trend. It is not the food that’s been in someone’s mouth. If you don’t have a clue about food recovery, continue reading to know more.
Chewy, snackable fruit rinds, veggie crackers, nutrition bars, crunchy fried puffs — what do these food items have in common? You got it! They’re all snacks I love to munch on while binge watching the latest Netflix offering on a lazy weekend night (browse our selection of delicious Texas snacks here using the TexasRealFood Promptuary).
However, these food products also have another, more unique commonality. They’re all made from leftovers that we usually throw away. Skeptical? Read on to know exactly what I’m talking about.
What is Upcycled Food (Upcycling)?
If it’s the first time you’re hearing the term “upcycled” in regards to food, then you’re not the only one. Ideally people are aware of plastic waste materials and recycling process, but the term Upcycled rarely becomes a part of conversation.
Normally used to describe clothing made of new materials from older garments or fabric remnants, “upcycled clothing” has become quite the trend among DIY-ers and fashion influencers.
But what about upcycled foods? How can we possibly reuse spent food and make a new product out of it?
Well, upcycled foods or upcycling has actually been a reality for quite a while now.
If you like to shop at farmers’ markets in Texas, then you surely must’ve landed up with some extra produce more than once. So, what do you do when you have a pot full of sunchoke peels and tops after making this silky, seasonal sunchoke soup?
Upcycled food refers to the challenge of reducing food waste by collecting excess or unappealing foods, as well as food manufacturing leftovers, and turning them into a healthy and delicious new food item. You may construe this as giving new life or second life to your food items that helps to reduce waste.
This means that at their core, upcycled foods are fresh, new products made from lesser quality goods that would otherwise be discarded due to imperfections, overripeness, or shopper indifference. Upcycling would help us create a circular economy aimed at sustenance.
Furthermore, the Upcycled Food Association has produced a definition for this creative concept: “upcycled foods use items that otherwise would not have been part of human consumption. These food items are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains and positively impact the environment.”
While this trendy way to reuse food scraps or lesser quality goods may sound new, the concept of it isn’t so unique. In fact, farmers and food producers are very familiar with inventive upcycling solutions. From drinking cheese whey as a health beverage thousands of years ago to the invention of baby carrots in the 80s, to using squished produce to make sauces and jams, people have been practicing the key principles of food upcycling for millennia.
However, in recent years, the food upcycling projects has undeniably gained renowned energy and momentum, including being a part of TexasRealFood’s top 10 food trends for 2021. What’s more, food salvage in Texas have recently started to show up, with a new brand popping up on our radar — Real Food Bar.
Real Food Bar is a vegan nutrition bar company founded by Austin locals Anna and Shaun. This brand has become a hit, offering tempting flavors such as Espresso Chip, Chocolate, Sea Salt (how long does sea salt last?), Peanut Butter (how long does peanut butter last?), and Cherry Cashew.
This company has taken it in its stride to create a circular economy by using upcycled ingredients in its manufacturing process, in turn creating a positive influence on the local environment. It has created a whole new level of reducing food waste.
Since its launch in 2019, Real Food Bar has reused over 500 pounds of kale, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes that would otherwise have been rotting away in a landfill.
Types of Upcycled Food Ingredients
Upcycled food can be utilized in a variety of different ways. You can use various items as raw materials for upcycling. Here are some upcycling ideas:
Vegetable Powders
Excess veggies or edible ones that don’t pass the cut at the grocery store can be dried and converted into ground powder. It is one of the easiest upcycling ideas. Vegetable powders can then be added to food products such as protein bars (how long do protein bars last?), smoothies, soups, and stews.
In turn, vegetable powder gives more value of micronutrients, antioxidants, and plant polyphenols to your meals. It would be a great addition to your daily meals.
Using and Repurposing Byproducts
Many food companies utilize food rescue method to create food derivatives from their production process that are still edible and nutritious. For example, veggie and fruit scraps arising from this process can be upcycled as delicious snacks. Fruit and vegetable pulp is another byproduct that can be repurposed as compost, or an addition to broths, etc.
How Does Upcycled Food Help the Food Economy?
Creating a Circular Economy
No food upcycler can work as a one-person island. When it comes to generating sustainable change for our food system, we need to work together to create a complete ecosystem of people and companies that strive to fight food waste.
Food recovery implies closing the loop, so that food byproducts that would otherwise be wasted are made use of in the best possible way. Part of this process involves ensuring that local farmers, chefs, and consumers all stand to gain some benefits in extending the life of the food they use and produce.
Food Salvage to Solve Food Waste Problem
Each year, the United States is shown to be one of the biggest food wasters globally. To cope with this problem, it’s important we first curb our food spending habits through food rescue. And secondly, we need to revolutionize ways in which we consume food that would otherwise be wasted. This is where upcycled food enters the picture.
As consumers begin to understand more about this sustainable concept, it’s certain they will become more interested in buying upcycled food products and doing their bit to reduce food waste materials.
How Can you Upcycle your Own Food?
As families, we need to consider how to develop a “closed-loop strategy” for the food we eat. Here are a few upcycling ideas to practice food recovery with your own family.
Use as Much as Possible
Save food trimmings (peels, bones, skins) and stash them in your freezer. At the end of the month, dump these raw materials all into a big pot or plastic bags. For upcycling, add some herbs and spices, and make a deliciously nutritious broth.
Compost
Invest in a compost bin and say goodbye to throwing away your food scraps. Instead, create a perfect, nutrient-rich compost for your vegetable garden for you to use in the summer months. Composting is one of the most popular upcycling ideas.
Share
Cooked far too much spaghetti again? Got a surplus of green chilies from your home garden? Spread the love! Share meals and extra produce with your friends and family to promote upcycling. After all, we all love receiving a food-based gift!
Upcycling food is uncharted territory for consumer-packed goods (CPG) brands and everyday consumers. Nevertheless, the underlying principle of food salvage benefits us all — being more mindful of how we buy and consume food. How do you practice food rescue to avoid food waste, and make the most of what you have?
The Revolution of Upcycled Food
Upcycling is now "the new recycling," Just like recycling plastic waste, it presents an enticing opportunity for companies to reduce food waste and loss while simultaneously growing a plethora of new food and beverage products with value additions from sidestreams.
New upcycling ideas in this sector include alcoholic spirits made from repurposed whey, chewy treats made from fruit excess, and prebiotic sugars made from fiber-rich agricultural waste.
The Future of Upcycling Food
Sustainability is one of the primary concerns of many contemporary consumers. Consumers are increasingly selecting brands or goods that feature recyclable or biodegradable packaging or companies known to support environmental conservation initiatives by direct action and contributions. This trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
Food waste, on the other hand, is one of the most significant problems associated with sustainability in the food and beverage business. The Upcycled Food Association estimates that the amount of food thrown out or lost yearly amounts to around one trillion dollars worldwide.
This may be the result of food that spoils before it can reach the ultimate customer or a food byproduct that is often regarded as being useless that is created during the production process.
Within the food and beverage business, the market for upcycling or upcycled food is one industry that is expanding at the fastest rate. There is no limit to the possibilities.
Food that has been upcycled may be prepared in various ways. By generating new items of higher quality or higher value out of leftover food, upcycled products reduce the amount of food that is wasted. Upcycling is the first solution based on a consumer product, making it extremely scalable and economically viable. That is why upcycling is an innovative response to the problem of food waste.
How To Engage In Home Upcycling
Using too-ripe bananas (how long do bananas last?) in preparing banana bread, lovely banana cream, or banana smoothies is one way of home upcycling. Drying or dehydrating food to last longer is one of the best upcycling ideas and a great method of reusing food before it goes bad.
One of the best upcycling ideas of this is drying apples to produce apple chips (how long do apple chips last?) and storing them in plastic bags. In addition, vegetable scraps, such as the leaves of broccoli and carrots and the peels from potatoes, may be used to generate a flavorful vegetable broth (how long does vegetable broth last?), which can then be used in the preparation of dishes like soups, stews, and chili.
Allow your children to assist you in making fruit and vegetable popsicles using food on the verge of spoiling to engage them in the upcycling process. Not only will the children enjoy the delectable dessert, but they will also have broadened their understanding of how food upcycling can be practised with this budget friendly technique.
Upcycling Ideas
Upcycling food at home helps cut down on total food waste and, over time, will substantially contribute to improving the environment. You may develop new habits that affect your life by taking a few more actions. When planning and preparing meals, you'll also have the chance to use your creative side more.
You may get a head start on your efforts by using these upcycling ideas:
Make an effort to purchase items produced in your immediate area. When you buy local goods, you help cut down on the number of carbon emissions produced by the transportation of food across large distances. Visit the locally produced area of your supermarket or go shopping at the farmers market in your neighborhood.
If possible, buy organic food. Fruits and vegetables grown organically do not contain pesticides or other artificial agents. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the potential dangers these compounds pose to one's health depend on the chemical in question and the degree to which one is exposed.
Composting is one of the best upcycling ideas to add nutrients to your garden; investigate the resources available in your town to assist you in getting started. Put a small container or use wooden planks with lid beneath your sink to gather sliced fruit and vegetable leftovers or raw materials. Each week, move these discarded materials to the compost pile or wooden crates you keep them in. Your garden will benefit from creating nutrient-rich soil due to decomposing food waste over time.
Look for food raw materials that have gone through upcycling. Investigate items that have been manufactured utilizing edible ingredients that would have otherwise been thrown away. According to the Upcycled Food Association, these goods use components to generate meals that benefit the environment while reducing the amount of trash produced.
Create a menu for the week before you go shopping. By making preparations in advance, you can guarantee that you will use every edible portion of the meal. Create a meal plan for the week that uses minimal materials due to expire early in the week. Fresh fruits and vegetables should be stored correctly to prevent the food from going bad. Make a double batch of a dish so that you may save the extras for tomorrow's lunch or freeze them later.
Rethink how you prepare food by saving the herb and vegetable stems from the salad you made on Monday to add flavor to the soup you made on Friday. Make candied citrus peels to decorate a dessert or a simple syrup to flavor a drink as an alternative to throwing away the peels of citrus fruits. Make soups and sauces more flavorful by using cheese rinds.
The Process of Upcycling Exposed
Through upcycling, practically discarded materials is given a second chance at using. The leftover scrap of food or product is reused and then placed back into the supply chain responsibly, rather than being thrown away in a landfill, where it would contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases such as methane.
Because supermarkets only want to sell goods to customers that seem to be in excellent condition, this only applies to food that has gone bad.
Upcycling may also be done with food items that are either too short, not bright enough, or awkwardly shaped. Without the practice of upcycling, all of this rotten food or produce with imperfections would add to the one billion tons of food dumped in landfills yearly creating a waste stream.
Are Upcycled Foods a Healthy Option?
Upcycled foods are prepared from high-quality ingredients intended for human consumption and guaranteed free of harmful substances or contaminants. They are nutritious and, in many cases, much healthier than the alternatives!
Fiber is often removed from the typical American diet due to processing done by our food system; however, many upcycled foods, such as okara, are bringing that fiber back to our plates.
The idea behind upcycling food is to use it to its maximum capacity, whether that means utilizing unused products or byproducts from other sources in the manufacturing of new foods, pet or animal feed, cosmetics, or any other product that maintains the food's quality and keeps it out of waste facilities.
How to Begin Utilizing Upcycled Foods in Your Diet
Taking baby steps may lead to significant progress for anybody interested in beginning to include upcycled foods into their diet. Simply being aware of the waste associated with our food may serve as a powerful drive to increase one's consumption of whole, unprocessed, locally grown foods.
You can use Okara flour to make various foods throughout the week using upcycling, including handmade pasta (how long does pasta last?), muffins, smoothies, and even tortillas!
There are many tasty ways to become involved in the Upcycled Food movement, all of which contribute to reducing the amount of wasteful food produced.
The Course of Development for The Upcycling Sector
As is well known, the need to act more environmentally responsibly is not simply a concern for the general public. Many other brands and grocery stores also work toward achieving their sustainability objectives through upcycling.
A great number of major businesses have already begun the process of upcycling to more environmentally friendly practices such as not using plastic bags. Some of them are on track to become carbon-neutral over the next 10 to 30 years.
Sustainability in the food and beverage industry will continue to be a driving force behind shopping behaviors, especially in the coming years, as we have more open and honest discussions about the ongoing climate crisis. This is because consumers are becoming more aware of minimizing their environmental impact and reducing waste.
Final Words
Upcycled food is not the same as recycled leftovers but is incredibly beneficial. It is still food that we normally wouldn't consume, so we need to consider whether or not it is of high quality and how safe it is.
Upcycled food was always considered a niche sector and could mostly be found at health food shops; however, this is beginning to change. The flavor of recycled food is unaffected, whether it be vegetable stems made into chips, pulp from leftover juice converted into granola (how long does granola last?), or bread thrown away.
Upcycling food enterprises have taken the market by storm, resulting in a positive change in the complexion of our eating habits and a reduction in the amount of food waste caused by upcycling it.
Now that the word "upcycled food" has been given an official definition, it will be easier for consumers and businesses to rally behind upcycled food items, contributing to reducing food waste.
The upcycling movement's expansion coincides with increased consumer interest in sustainable practices and the proliferation of environmentally aware food businesses.
