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Why Do We Upcycle?
Believe it or not, food waste is one of the most
significant drivers of climate change. According to
“Adding upcycled the Food and Agriculture Organisation, every year,
1.3 billion tonnes of food get wasted, which accounts
ingredients can be a for about 30% of the food produced worldwide.
Moreover, as food rots, it emits methane, a green gas
great way to boost the that is even worse than CO 2. Food waste, in fact,
directly and indirectly, causes 70 billion tonnes of
overall fiber content greenhouse gasses per year. Project Drawdown, one
of the leading research institutions on climate change
and achieve ‘good mitigation, has suggested that reducing food waste
can be the number one thing people can do to slow
source’ or ‘excellent global warming, closely followed by eating a more
plant-based diet.
source’ of fiber claims. Upcycled food and ingredients might help solve
This fiber can also the world’s food waste problem. It might be your
first time hearing the phrase “upcycled food”, how-
help with improving ever, the concept has been popular for a while. Food
Network Magazine and Whole Foods listed upcycled
gut health.” foods as a top trend for 2021. There are already a
few upcycled products in the market, such as
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Spudsy’s sweet potato puffs made from “ugly” pota- gardening. Cotto explained to us how it is possible
toes and Candid Noons’ chocolate bites, which use to transform planted-based milk byproducts into
the wastes of cacao fruits. flour and baking mixes. There are two problems with
Upcycled Food Association, the nonprofit trade plant-based milk byproducts: they spoil exception-
association focused on reducing food waste by grow- ally quickly and are full of water when they come off
ing the upcycled food economy, has given the defi- the processing line, so they are cumbersome to
nition of upcycled food and products: “Food that is transport. Renewal Mill solves these problems by
upcycled is made with ingredients that otherwise using a co-location model, where they install dehy-
would not have gone to human consumption, and are dration and milling equipment inside the manufac-
sourced and produced using verifiable supply chains, turing facilities to capture and process the byprod-
and have a positive impact on the environment.” ucts into flour before they ever leave the factory
Over-matured, bruised fruits and vegetables, leftover floor. They then package the flour or use it to make
pulp from juicing, all these editable waste have the value-added products like baking mixes and cookies.
potential to be consumed again by people but just in In this way, the wasted food eventually becomes
different forms. The most common example is ketch- something tasty on our table.
up, usually made of soft or bruised tomatoes.
Nevertheless, there could still be some differ-
ences between upcycled and recycled food. Apart
from just turning the waste into edible products,
upcycling sometimes could make the unedible waste
into superfoods that surpass the value of their origin.
For example, Renewal Mill, a women-owned, Oak-
land-based upcycled food company, has always been
fighting food waste and climate change by transform-
ing the nutritious byproducts of food manufacturing
into ingredients and delicious plant-based products.
Caroline Cotto, the co-founder and COO of Renewal
Mill, got to know the concept of upcycled food and
ingredients back in 2016. She told us: “I learned of
the statistic that 40% of food in the US is wasted, and
my mind was blown because that’s such a massive
amount.” Moreover, the co-founder, Claire Schlemme,
had also seen numerous food waste first-hand in her
previous organic juice company. “When we started
exploring what could be done with the pulpy byprod-
ucts of processes like juicing and making plant-based
milk, we stumbled into the world of upcycled food,
and that’s how Renewal Mill was born,” she said.
Caroline Cotto also mentioned that the pulp of
plant-based milk is richer in insoluble fiber and
protein. The flour made from the byproducts is
packed with nutrition, light color, and neutral flavor,
making them ideal for integrating into traditional
flour-based products. She says: “Adding upcycled
ingredients can be a great way to boost the overall
fiber content and achieve ‘good source’ or ‘excellent
source’ of fiber claims. This fiber can also help with
improving gut health.”
Moreover, many new technologies have been
used to create great upcycled food and ingredients
instead of merely recycling it by giving nearly ex-
pired food to the poor or making compost for home
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