Using Edible Surplus to Drive Down Emissions in Foodservice

ABOUT SPARE FOOD

Adam Kaye spent two decades as Chef and Culinary Director at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, at the leading edge of the new food movement creating delicious foods and dining concepts from the bounty of the farm and the Hudson River Valley. But it was his experience as co-creator and Chef at the WastEd pop-up restaurant concepts in NYC and London that opened his eyes to the culinary possibilities that lie in the overlooked and unused ingredient treasures hiding in plain sight in our food system. Thus was born the seed of the idea for The Spare Food Co.

In 2018 Adam teamed up with his brother and sustainability veteran, Jeremy, to found The Spare Food Co. The brothers set out to identify and capture overlooked ingredients at farms and food processors and use culinary innovation to keep them at their highest purpose – by transforming them into delicious, value-add products and dishes for foodservice, hospitality, and restaurant partners.

Spare Starter, their latest innovation, exemplifies this ethos. Spare Starter is a cooked ingredient comprising 6 surplus vegetables (onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, summer squash, peppers, and eggplant) purchased from the farm, that would otherwise likely not have been sold. The product is intended primarily for use in food service kitchens. It’s shelf-stable, vegan, allergen-free, fat-free, and low sodium, and forms the base ingredient for literally dozens of dishes.

THE CHALLENGE 

Adam and Jeremy knew from the jump that their product would provide a pathway for food service suppliers and their clients to quantifiably reduce the amount of wasted food and lower their carbon footprint, but they needed a way to accurately measure the impacts of their unique supply chain innovations at every point from farm to plate. 

<span class="small-blockquote">"We are not simply using surplus ingredients or upcycled ingredients to create our product. We take a systems innovation approach, looking at each step and process in the supply chain and uncovering the opportunities to maximize the use of each ingredient while minimizing wasteful process throughout."</span>

<span class="blockquote-wrap">
<strong>Adam Kaye</strong>
Co-founder, The Spare Food Co.
</span>

From their farm-level and processing innovations to culinary innovations that extend the shelf-life of the original ingredients, they wanted to ensure every step they took to reduce emissions throughout the value chain was captured and appropriately measured. 

The Spare Food team were looking for a partner that could help them accurately measure the impact of the methods they’d devised to maximize ingredient use and reduce waste at every point in the supply chain. Upcycled materials require a modified life cycle assessment to accurately and fully capture the benefits of food saved from the landfill. To do this, they knew they would need a provider who could model primary processing, upcycled ingredients, and ultimately, flexibility - capabilities that proved difficult to find. 

THE SOLUTION

To get the data they needed, Adam and Jeremy looked to Planet FWD, finding the flexibility and depth they needed to reflect their unique product and supply chain. 

Planet FWD employs the Recycled Content method (also called the cut-off approach), one of two approaches to modeling recycling in life cycle assessments for recycling, upcycling, and reuse. This approach defines how environmental burden is allocated in a system where a material may have multiple lives. The system boundaries are drawn such that the system that produces the recyclable waste is responsible up to the point of delivering the waste to a recycling facility. Any subsequent transport, processing and use of that material is included in the second system(s) that uses the would-be-waste material in some form.

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Together Planet FWD and The Spare Food Co. conducted cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessments for Spare Starter and measured the impact of upcycled ingredients, including:

• Food and packaging saved
• Water saved 
• GHG emissions saved 
• Benchmark against conventional practices

<span class="small-blockquote">"Simply substituting Spare Starter as an ingredient in a portion of the menu, rather than asking the consumer to make a behavior change, is innovative and highly impactful. If diners can still enjoy a delicious hamburger that has a measurably lower carbon footprint, with the added benefit of being a healthier option, that’s a win. Planet FWD's unique analytical methods and clear, actionable data was critical in helping us not only quantify the attributes of Spare Starter, but also the impact it has in large-scale food service operations."</span>

<span class="blockquote-wrap">
<strong>Jeremy Kaye</strong>
Co-founder and CEO, The Spare Food Co.
</span>

RESULTS & BENEFITS

The Life Cycle Assessment conducted by Planet FWD quantifies the environmental impact of Spare Starter from the farm through end-of-life and compares the product to similar, conventional ingredients from the farm through its journey to a food service kitchen, including cooking. 

The impact of Spare Starter is clear. If an operator were to replace 160 lbs of conventional vegetables purchased each week with 5 pails of shelf-stable Spare Starter (equivalent to ~ 600 portions), over a one-year period they would see savings of approximately:

• 2000+ hours of manual prep time
• 1700 lbs of on-site food waste/trim and scraps kept out of the compost bin or landfill
• 5800 lbs of surplus food maintained in the food system as food for people

Not only is it saving time and money, but also tons of carbon emissions a year. The swap in the example above spares:

• 4.5 US short tons CO2e of GHG emissions, the equivalent of reducing 12,818 miles driven by gas-powered cars (which is like driving from LA to NYC 4.5 times)
• 197,500 gallons of water saved

Let’s look at another example based on real Spare Food customers. A mid-size college campus with 5000 - 8000 students might conservatively serve around 500 burgers per day each week.  By replacing just 30% of the beef with Spare Starter to serve a plant-forward blended burger, they’d save over 1,200 lb of beef each month—providing a climate-friendly solution that does not require people to give up their favorite food.

With more than 30 billion burgers eaten in the US each year, an opportunity to make a meaningful impact comes into clear view. 

Since working together, The Spare Food Co. has been able to use this information to further sales conversations and communicate the climate impact of their product to their customers.

What’s more, Spare Food has received attention from the media, garnering spotlights from The Guardian, Inc. Magazine, and industry media like NOSH, Vegconomist, and GreenQueen. 

Through its partnership with Planet FWD, The Spare Food Co. has not only seen increased success as an upcycled food company but also as a thought leader, elevating the upcycled industry as a whole through reliable data. 

According to a report by FACT.MR, the global upcycled ingredients market will grow with a CAGR of 6.4% over the forecast period 2022-2032, reaching a valuation of $512 million. As the company continues to grow, this critical climate impact data will show the viability of building thriving, sustainable businesses using upcycled ingredients, serving as a lighthouse for the industry.