Food waste that’s good enough to eat

Melbourne is the culinary capital of Australia, boasting some of the best restaurants and freshest produce in the world. But in Victoria, we’re wasting more than 2 million tonnes of food a year, resulting in over 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

On behalf of the Victorian Government, Sustainability Victoria is supporting businesses to look beyond the bin and use food waste as a resource, providing them with the training, partnerships and grant funding they need to test new business models.

More than 200 new circular products and services have already been developed to incentivise businesses to eliminate waste, with 11 funded projects projected to reduce or recycle food waste by 40,280 tonnes each year and contribute 4.2% toward Victoria’s target to halve food waste by 2030.

From spilt milk to undersized cherries, these businesses are finding a way to divert food waste from landfill, saving money and creating new revenue streams in the process.

Another bite of the cherry

When cherries start appearing in our supermarkets, we know the festive season is right around the corner. Although these summer favourites are only available for a few short (and sweet) months of the year, we throw away up to 30% of our crop – that’s 3,000 tonnes every year in Victoria alone and enough to fill around 41,000 shopping trolleys.

Processed through precise grading equipment, cherries that don’t meet strict standards of colour, size and blemish type are rejected. They’re also discarded if they’ve dropped their stems.

Former chef Sam Bate saw a business opportunity and has paired up with the team at Cathedral Cherries to repurpose this waste into new products to whet the appetites of cherry consumers.

Using cherry pulp, juice and skins, Sam has developed a number of commercially viable, high-end consumer products like cider, vodka, vinegar and a kind of cherry honeycomb, which is created through an innovative freeze-drying process.

Sam says knowing his project had the backing of Sustainability Victoria opened a lot of doors.

'We wouldn’t have been able to go ahead without this funding,' Sam says.

'And having the support of Sustainability Victoria has given us so much more credibility. It has really paved the way, having that clout behind us.'

No olive left behind

Extra virgin olive oil is a staple in most Australian kitchens. But the process to squeeze this liquid gold from the olive fruit generates a lot of waste, with olive pits, skin, and fruit flesh left over.

Known as pomace, the olive pulp is difficult to manage, behaving less like a bunch of olives and more like a bowl of unruly porridge in the microwave. It also smells.

Cobram Estate’s Andrew Burgess says the traditional way of managing the pomace has been through large evaporation ponds that allow it to dry out for 9 months before spreading it back on the groves as organic soil amendment.

'This puts a lot of methane in the air, so it’s not a sustainable way to manage our pomace. The process is quite lengthy and is a significant cost to the business,' Andrew says.

As Australia’s biggest olive oil producer, Cobram Estate is now building an industry-first facility at its Boundary Bend olive grove. It basically works as an industrial tumble dryer to recycle up to 28,000 tonnes of pomace each year into new products like animal feed and soil conditioner.

Funding from Sustainability Victoria has contributed to this new facility, which will reduce waste, deliver a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and decrease the use of commercial fertilisers at Boundary Bend.

There's something about dairy

Australian dairy manufacturers are spending $7 million each year just to manage food waste, and a further $120 million is lost on finished products that are good enough to eat but are thrown away.

Supported by a grant from Sustainability Victoria, Dairy Australia teamed up with Stop Food Waste Australia and the Australian Dairy Products Federation to develop a sector-wide action plan to reduce food waste.

The plan identifies 10 key actions, including investing in technical solutions, promoting sustainable packaging solutions, and improving inventory management systems, which will deliver significant economic, social and environmental benefits.

Dairy Australia’s Dr David Nation says waste from the dairy supply chain has been identified as one of Australia’s highest sources of food waste.

'The dairy industry has been working to reduce food waste and extend the shelf life of products for decades,' David says.

'This new commitment takes us much further, leading the agriculture sector on sustainability and setting a goal to halve food waste by 2030.'

Doing business differently

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