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Reducing Food Waste

�Ӱ�ԭ�� Researchers Help Develop a More Sustainable Food System

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Almost half of all food produced in Canada . That’s more than 21 million tonnes every year, worth a staggering $58 billion. Around the world, about  are squandered, waste that’s responsible for 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of this loss occurs in household fridges and restaurant kitchens. Crops rot or are ravaged by pests. “Best before” dates send products to the trash bin when they are still safe to consume. One farmer in Nova Scotia reportedly  40 per cent of his cauliflowers because they’re the wrong size or colour for supermarkets. Factor in the impacts of climate change on agriculture — drought in some regions, flooding elsewhere — and it’s even more difficult to keep grocery prices under control.

�Ӱ�ԭ�� University food science and biochemistry researcher Tyler Avis and  from the  are tackling food insecurity from different directions. But their goals are the same: help prevent hunger, make businesses more efficient and ensure that the resources put into growing, processing and distributing food don’t go down the drain.

Reducing Spoilage

Reducing spoilage is one the most effective things we can do to improve access to healthy and affordable food, says Avis, whose team is exploring the use of beneficial microorganisms to outcompete the bacteria, viruses and fungi that damage or destroy plants.

This biocontrol method promises to protect crops and extend the shelf life of produce. At the same time, it may reduce our reliance on synthetic chemical pesticides that are common in agriculture but have negative impacts on our health and the environment.

For example, rather than use soil fumigants, which essentially kill everything that might harm crops but leave a void that other harmful pests or pathogens can fill, beneficial microorganisms create a more balanced environment in which plants can prosper.

In his lab, Avis has been looking at different strains of Bacillus bacteria and other microorganisms. They can be put into one side of a Petri dish with a mould on the other; if the mould stops growing, the strain is a good candidate for further investigation.

He also does experiments in farm fields, greenhouses and storage units. Tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, strawberries and other produce can be sprayed with solutions containing non-toxic microorganisms to see if the exposure extends the amount of time they remain edible.

“Using microorganisms that are already in the environment is a more nuanced approach,” explains Avis. “We’re just potentially adding more of them to create a slightly different system.

Better Measurement, Better Management

The adage “what gets measured, gets managed” is a guiding principle for Keddie. Her research revolves around “sustainability accounting,” which encompasses a business’s many impacts on society and the environment, not just its finances. She’s also interested in the idea of a , which, according to Canada’s federal government, repurposes and recycles products and materials as much as possible and is rooted in “using valuable resources wisely [and] thinking about waste as a resource instead of a cost.”

One major contributor to food waste, Keddie explains, is that supermarkets don’t keep close tabs on their losses. Leading a , she conducted interviews with 60 grocery stores and learned the term “shrink,” which covers everything from spoilage, spillage and theft to expiring items that are either donated or thrown out.

There’s no line item differentiating between discarded and stolen food, and in some cases, it’s more profitable to throw out aging baked goods than to sell them at a reduced rate because customers get “trained” to wait until the end of the day for discounts.

Shrink leads to higher operating costs, which are passed onto the consumer. But without more detailed accounting, stores can’t identify where to make improvements that could help feed people while improving the bottom line.

Accounting can be used to either hide or expose a problem, says Keddie.

Although their project is still underway, Keddie and her collaborations have started to brainstorm solutions. For example, streamlined access to financing for social enterprises that freeze, dehydrate and redistribute food before it expires. Or adjustable display cases to make cauliflowers of all shapes and sizes attractive to shoppers.

“Nature has a really good circular food system, but humans messed it up,” says Keddie, whose research aims to inform government policy that could incentivize waste reduction and investors motived by more than financial returns. “If we can figure out how to reform this system, maybe those learnings can be applied to help other industries transition to a circular economy.”

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