The United Nations (UN) estimates a third of all food produced is wasted despite the appalling fact that as many as 829 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night, so a combined effort by both the public and private sector could have a significant impact in solving this preventable crisis.
As such, the Dublin, Ireland-headquartered ingredient specialist has designed a Food Waste Estimator, which allows participants to quantify and understand the financial and environmental impact of reducing food waste both in the food chain and at home.
We need to act
The Estimator provides info on the number of additional people that could be fed, as well as the amount of carbon dioxide and water that would be saved by making a few, simple changes.
It also incorporates Too Good to Go – the world’s largest food saving app for consumers – and enables food manufacturers to determine the impact they can have by using shelf life extension tech.
In fact, research has shown that around 50% of food waste can be prevented with shelf-life extension technologies.
Of course, these savings would meaningfully reduce world hunger.
“We all need to act and as an industry we must take immediate action in eradicating food waste within the food system through new technology and innovating together,” said Bert de Vegt, global VO for Food Protection & Preservation at Kerry.
Bread saving tech
As a market leader in clean label preservation, Kerry believes shelf life protection and extension is the most actionable method in managing food waste both in the home and throughout the supply chains. As such, it has pioneered breakthroughs in bakery – one of the highest food waste categories – through fermentation, vinegar-based ingredients, plant extract and enzymes, among others.
According to the company, its solutions extend the shelf life of over 34.5 billion loaves of bread annually.
“While Kerry partners with manufacturers to extend the shelf life of products, it is important to remember that individual actions at home can also have a big impact. If the world reversed the current trend of food loss and waste, we could protect enough resources to feed three times the amount of undernourished people on the planet today.
“Our new tool provides simple but actionable insights for both consumers and the food industry and shows the real impact that shelf-life extension technology can have on food products.”
Kerry’s Estimator analyses proprietary data and 3rd party data, and presents them in a usable and easy-to-understand format for consumers and manufacturers. It includes data from over 30 sources and builds on the review of more than 50 scientific articles, and where required, uses industry-recognised methodologies to fill in the gaps, using averages and adjusting for medium and high confidence estimates only.
