Forget grass-fed beef, how about Cap’n Crunch-fed? An article in Harvest reports that, often, more than half of cattle feed comes from food manufacturing excess. The mix of scraps and seconds that used to be the domain of hogs, is becoming increasingly common with cattle. My first thought: what a nice use of excess materials that keeps […]
Category Archives: Processing Plants
Friday Buffet
Sodexo reported that they’ve reduced waste by 30% on eight campuses. How? Identifying their waste by using LeanPath waste tracking systems. — — Half the fish caught in the North Sea are being thrown back…dead?!?
Friday Buffet
Here are some ideas on Obama’s food policy. Strange that there’s no mention of a Food Waste Czar. He must want to keep it hush-hush. — — Reminder: Nov 26 is your last chance to submit your comments on the proposed Green Seal Environmental Standard for Restaurants. — — OK, University of New Mexico, it’s […]
Where’s the Beef? In the Landfill
Not surprisingly, there’s been some fallout from the largest beef recall in U.S. history. You know, the one that didn’t really need to happen. Many retailers are frustrated at having to toss perfectly good food. Recently, Seattle-area landfills have started burying cases of meat that were at school cafeterias. A King County landfill received 230 […]
My Beef with the Recall
Yesterday, Westland/Hallmark Meatpacking Company recalled the most beef in US history. The 143 million pounds of meat was more than four times greater than the next highest amount. In fact, the recalled beef is enough to serve two burgers to roughly every American. Now imagine every man, woman and child throwing away two hamburgers (minus […]
8:30 to 5:30
As I mentioned before, I’ve begun working for a renewable energy company planning to convert food waste to electricity. So far, so good. In trying to find sources of bulk food waste, I’ve spoken with folks at food processing plants. One canning factory executive told me that the speed of their production line leads to an abundance of […]
Pot Pie Pandemic?
After concerns that some of its Banquet poultry pot pie products may be linked to an outbreak of salmonella, ConAgra recalled all Banquet and store brand pot pies last week. The reason more than 165 people in 31 states got sick is because they didn’t get the freezer pies hot enough. Because these pot pies are not ‘ready […]
About that 27 percent
Whenever the discussion of food waste comes up, the 27 percent figure soon follows. According to the USDA’s helpful research wing–the Economic Research Service (ERS)–that amount of the edible food available for human consumption in the US at retail, restaurant and consumer levels is “lost to human use.” My 3 cents: 1. It’s incomplete. It […]
Waste in Your World
One of the perks of running this site is getting feedback from readers. Recently, I was excited to receive this question from Kelley, a middle school student in Russelville, Ark. I’ll let her explain: My name is Kelley and I’m in the seventh grade. Our class is a part of Project Citizen, it is where you find […]