The hot new trend in food is garbage – literally making products from food waste

There’s been an explosion in the number of start-ups

Flour milled from discarded coffee fruit. Chips made from juice pulp. Vodka distilled from strawberries that nobody seems to want.

At one point not so long ago, such waste-based products were novelties for so-called ethical shoppers. But in the past three years, there’s been an explosion in the number of start-ups making products from food waste, according to a new industry census by the US non-profit coalition ReFED.

The report, which was released on Tuesday and tracks a number of trends across the food-waste diversion industry, found that only 11 such companies existed in 2011. By 2013, that number had doubled, and ReFED now logs 64 established companies selling ugly-fruit jam, stale-bread beer, and other “upcycled” food products.

The companies have diverted hundreds of tonnes of food waste from landfills, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. They’ve also become a model for larger, multinational food companies, which are starting to realise that upcycling peels and piths can be good business.

That sort of mainstream change could make a big dent in the food-waste problem, ReFED estimates. In a 2016 report, the coalition calculated that “upcycling” efforts could save 92,500 tonnes of food from landfills each year.

READ MORE: The hot new trend in food is garbage – literally