Category Archives: Technology

Q&A: Scanning Away Food Waste?

Chances are you encounter radio frequency identification (RFID) technology quite often. You’re doing so when you use a proximity card at work or a hotel, track a package, check out library books, or become a scannable human. Within the food industry, RFID tags track food shipments’ progress at the pallet and truck level. The global packaging company […]

September 15, 2015 | Also posted in Q & A, Supermarket | Comments closed

Falling Fruit: Foraging Friend

Ever see a bunch of rotten apples at the bottom of a tree and wish you’d arrived earlier? If only you’d known about that tree a few weeks ago…if only there was a way to map “public fruit.” Soon, there will be an app for that. Falling Fruit, a resource for finding global urban edibles, […]

June 2, 2014 | Also posted in Freegan, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Boom! Rhode Island’s state legislature proposes a landfill food waste ban and the private sector leaps into action, with news of a planned composting facility near Providence. — — I really enjoyed this Food Hacks piece on regrowing food from the ends and other undesirable parts of herbs and veggies. If I had any use for […]

January 24, 2014 | Also posted in Composting, Household, Legislation, Supermarket | Comments closed

Food Packaging in the Limelight

Most of us hold a vague (or fervent) view that the less packaging the better. When it comes to food, though, it’s not as simple as that. On the one hand, packaged food prevents choice in the amount we buy, which can prompt overbuying (and waste). Then again, packaging can keep food fresher longer and […]

October 14, 2013 | Also posted in General, International, Packaging, Storage | Comments closed

Could Cookisto Conquer All?

These days, web-based peer-to-peer services are all the rage. If it has worked for accommodation, cab rides, and deliveries, why not with selling prepared foods?(What’s that you say? Health code rules? OK, fine–that may be an issue.) The web site/concept Cookisto is filling that edible void by allowing home chefs to post and sell their […]

September 25, 2013 | Also posted in International, Leftovers | Comments closed

Sensing Freshness

Can “electronic sensor circuits” reduce food waste by judging food freshness (through measuring acidity levels) more accurately than expiration dates? Yes. But… -But that’s not saying much, as expiration dates aren’t all that accurate. -But so could your own sensors–of smell, sight and taste. -But these food sensors are currently too expensive for mainstream adoption. -But, the […]

March 18, 2013 | Also posted in Food Safety, Supermarket | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

It’s nice to keep seeing food waste in the news, especially without much of a peg. That we waste 40% of our food is news enough! — — The Great Corn Rescue of 2012. Music to my ears. — — This passage from The UN Dispatch is in reference to the head of Darden Restaurants: …even though […]

September 28, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, Restaurant | Comments closed

Sensing a Problem II

There’s something in the air at Boston-area universities. The smell of rotten fruit, perhaps? Last week I wrote about a Tufts project to embed scannable, edible patches on food items to communicate bacteria levels. Now comes word of an M.I.T. project to help retailers know when food is ripening: The new sensors, described in the journal Angewandte Chemie, […]

May 3, 2012 | Also posted in Supermarket | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Korea may be onto something with their trash reduction strategy–using (RFID) electronic chips to help users pay for what they throw! — — The food safety experts at Consumer Reports weigh in on what ketchup rates highest how long summer condiments stay good. In my opinion, they err a tad on the cautious side (two weeks for […]

April 27, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed

Sensing a Problem

I promise I don’t hate technology. I’m not writing this on parchment paper in a cave. But when I read about this scannable, edible patch, I wasn’t thrilled. A Tufts professor has created a patch made from gold (Gold?! ) and plastic (yum!) that your smarty talky gizmo smartphone reads to note how much bacteria […]

April 26, 2012 | Also posted in Food Safety, Household | Comments closed