The USDA Food Loss and Waste Innovation Fair is among the individual and collective efforts of USDA
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that it will host the first-ever Food Loss and Waste Innovation Fair on May 26, 2021, to showcase USDA investments and business leadership in reducing food loss and waste throughout the food system.
The Innovation Fair will present businesses and research teams that have received USDA funding to research or commercialise cutting-edge food loss and waste solutions. Additionally, several USDA agencies – such as the Agricultural Research Service and the Food Safety and Inspection Service – will discuss their food loss and waste activities in research, measurement, education, funding, and outreach. Other presenters include several US Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions, businesses that have committed to reducing food loss and waste in their operations by 50 per cent by 2030.
Among the presenters:
Lake County, Illinois received a USDA grant for a pilot community compost project. Activities include conducting a compost-to-farmland demonstration study, engaging community gardeners through education and outreach, and reducing and diverting food waste from landfills.
En Solución (Austin, Texas) was funded by a USDA Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop and deploy a sanitizer made from ozone nanobubbles to wash harvested produce.
ReGrained (San Francisco, California) collaborated with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to develop patent-pending technology to dry and process brewers grains into healthy, high-quality flours, transforming food waste into value-added – and tasty – products.