Upcycling Success: Delivering Value, Climate Leadership, and Growth

About Matriark Foods

Matriark Foods was founded in 2018 by Anna Hammond, the former Executive Director of The Sylvia Center where she educated young people and families through culinary programming to promote health and wellbeing. While there, she saw the dichotomy of needless food waste and needless hunger paired with a lack of healthy food options. She set out to create a new model for food businesses. Built to be a change agent for future food systems, Matriark Foods upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, low-sodium vegetable products for schools, hospitals, food banks, food service, and retail. Matriark is meeting a trifecta of critical needs by simultaneously diverting waste from landfills, creating new markets for small and mid-scale farmers, and providing greater access to healthy food for all people. 

Matriark creates delicious broths, sauces and stews using upcycled ingredients,  meaning vegetables and vegetable remnants that would otherwise go to the landfill because they’re not perfectly round, uniform in color, or perhaps have a blemish. But these vegetables are no less nutritious and, more importantly, still taste perfectly delicious. When vegetables sit in  landfill, they produce methane, a greenhouse gas more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Food waste is a top methane contributor; the EPA estimates that in 2018, food scraps accounted for 24% of material sent to landfill. According to ReFed, in 2019 municipal landfills accounted for 15% of US methane emissions, making them the third largest source. 

The Challenge

‍According to ReFED, 31.3 million tons of produce were wasted in the US in 2022.  Knowing the damage food waste has on people and our planet, Hammond wanted to understand how her upcycled products, which are shelf-stable and come in recyclable packaging instead of alternatives like plastic and glass, impacted the climate. 

Hammond and her team also worked directly with farmers and processing plants to create a new supply chain to salvage this viable, but often wasted produce. Matriark has built a vast supply chain that includes large fresh-cut vegetable facilities and other manufacturers of vegetable products as well as produce from small- and mid-scale farms in the New York Tri-State area. To be able to effectively communicate the lower impact of these choices to consumers and retailers alike, she knew she needed a trusted partner who could deliver the quantitative data. 

The Solution

‍Enter Planet FWD, who partnered with Hammond and team to calculate the Product Life Cycle Assessments for Matriark Foods’ growing line of products. Through this partnership, Matriark understood not only the zero emissions impact of their upcycled ingredients but also how other go-to ingredients, like tomato paste, can be more emissions-intensive due to the energy use from processing.

Planet FWD was able to model the step-by-step production process down to the specific machinery used, which is critical to transforming the upcycled vegetables to be utilized as a base for all products and was the lowest emissions processing step - a major win as energy from production is typically a main driver for emissions. Now armed with these details, the Matriark team could show just how their new supply chain model has a lower impact. 

Beyond ingredients, the Matriark team’s choices in the creation of their products led to lower emissions out of the gate. For example, their tomato supply chain, which is kept within 200 miles of production, or choosing Tetra Pak for their shelf-stable products and has far more minimal emissions than shipping glass packaging due to the lighter weight and volume of the packaging. To contextualize these impacts, Planet FWD assembled benchmarks of generic packaging and non-upcycled vegetables: 

• Matriark Liquid Mirepoix has a 94% lower footprint by using upcycled vegetables

• Matriark Pasta Sauces (Spicy Arrabiata, Tomato Basil and Gentle Marinara) have a 37% lower footprint than sauces using conventional tomatoes and glass jars. 

Taking climate action a step further, Matriark’s products are carbon neutral, as the company has purchased offsets to account for any emissions they couldn’t fully reduce or avoid through Tradewater, a trusted offset provider that abides by quantifiable and transparent offsets.

Results & Benefits

‍As any growing brand knows, your efforts are only worth the value seen by the market. Thanks to Matriark’s comprehensive approach to how their brand and products were built, they entered the market with a strong suite of partners. In addition to their efforts with Planet FWD and Tradewater, Matriark Foods is also a founding and active member of the Upcycled Food Association and  1% for The Planet member. Their packaging is Forest Stewardship Council certified and they are a certified Women-Owned Business.

Matriark’s strategy of mitigating, measuring and communicating their impact has paid off. Matriark’s products and unique supply chain have been featured in top-tier media coverage including The New York Times, Bloomberg, Goop and Thrillist.

Planet FWD’s lifecycle analysis of Matriark products has enabled them to generate customized impact reports that inspire consumers and contribute directly to corporate ESG goals.  The need for more rigorous sustainability initiatives, as well as increased demand for this type of visibility from consumers, has led to game-changing distribution in 2023, including:

• National  distribution of Matriark products through Sysco distribution centers and the Central Warehouse remote dropship program
• National dropship availability through US Foods Direct
• Implementation of Matriark Foods’s Upcycled Vegetable Concentrate across college and university food service
• Shelf space at Whole Foods and Fresh Direct linked to increased interest in nature-positive food across their customers.

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Vizient, the largest provider of hospital food in the US, is in the process of granting Matriark Foods an Environmentally Preferred Supplier designation, a program with extremely rigorous criteria, which will increase visibility and accessibility to their members who are sustainability leaders in the healthcare sector.

<span class="small-blockquote">"Working with Planet FWD gave us the data we need to communicate to our customers that Matriark is a values-based, authentic, environmental impact food company. This helps our customers respond to the growing demand for climate-friendly food and allows them to reliably apply the data from our LCAs to their own decarbonization goals."</span>

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<strong>Anna Hammond</strong>
Founder and CEO, Matriark Foods
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It’s been inspiring to watch a brand prioritize and pursue sustainability from day one and find great success along the way. By doing so, Matriark Foods is setting a new precedent in the market by creating innovative, climate-conscious products that deliver on quality while reducing waste. From farmers looking for new revenue streams, to reduced waste, to nutrient-dense replacements for old industry standbys, Matriark’s work is proof of a solution that our food system has been looking for. We can’t wait to see what Matriark Foods accomplishes next!