The Last Word

Bakers today have a distinct need to keep up with consumer demand for sustainable products, sparking a booming movement with upcycled food and ingredients. Simply put, “upcycle” means minimizing food waste by creating new products out of otherwise wasted ingredients.

Upcycling prevents global food waste, which tops 30% of all food produced and is the leading contributor to global warming, according to Project Drawdown. On top of that, there’s no opposition; more than 99% of consumers think reducing food waste is important, according to a recent study by Mattson.

Think of upcycling as a win-win-win opportunity — good for consumers, good for the environment and good for the bottom line — with two ways to leverage it.

The first way to benefit from this new industry is to commercialize your own bakery byproducts into a new upcycled ingredient. Chances are, you have something going to waste somewhere in your supply chain, and that’s costing you money. Instead, use it to create something new. For example, Crust Brewing is using excess bread to make craft beer. Even more circular, Citizen Brewing makes an upcycled-bread beer, then uses the spent grain to make snack bars.

Secondly — and even more turnkey — you can include someone else’s upcycled ingredient in your bakery formulation. It makes an impact on food waste while creating a nutritious, innovative product. The Upcycled Food Association has dozens of upcycled ingredient suppliers within its network, including companies that create ingredients from spent grains, coffee plants, pecan shells, raspberry seeds and more.

The Upcycled Food Association is making these products more accessible across the supply chain with initiatives like the Upcycled Certified program, which certifies products and ingredients that are reducing food waste. Ultimately, a circular supply chain keeps the industry moving forward. CB

— Turner Wyatt is a social entrepreneur focused on climate change via food waste prevention. He is the co-founder and CEO of the Upcycled Food Association, which aims to prevent food waste by growing the upcycled food economy.