Tag Archives: food waste

Veg charity teams up with HelloFresh

The Alexandra Rose Charity, which supplies vouchers that low income families can buy fresh fruit and vegetables, has teamed up with recipe box company HelloFresh to help provide fruit and veg for families on low incomes who struggle to afford it.

This partnership will see HelloFresh distribute leaflets, which tell the story of ‘Rose Voucher mum’ Lamratu, in its meal boxes until 29 March as part of HelloFresh’s mission to help families eat more veg with every meal.

“Before I started receiving Rose Vouchers my boys didn’t even know what fruit was because I couldn’t afford to buy any fruit or vegetables” says Lamratu. A Rose Voucher Mum for the last year, Lamratu has seen a huge improvement in her son’s health. After receiving Rose Vouchers from her Hackney Children’s Centre, Lamratu gradually introduced her children to an increasing variety of fruit and veg.

Andre Dupin, Head Chef at HelloFresh said, “We want to help ensure that every family includes more fresh fruit and veg into their diets – something that Alexandra Rose helps families to achieve every day.”

Jonathan Pauling, Chief Executive of Alexandra Rose Charity, added, “We are grateful that HelloFresh have given their considerable weight to support our charity’s mission. 23 per cent of parents in the UK worry about not having enough money to feed their families. Partnering with HelloFresh means thousands more people are learning about our work and how they can help us fund vouchers so we can reach even more families in need.”

Photo Caption: HelloFresh will distribute leaflets highlighting the work of the Alexandra Rose Charity in its recipe boxes.

Photo Credit: HelloFresh The post Veg charity teams up with HelloFresh appeared first on Hort News on 21 March 2019.

New fund to tackle farm waste

Scottish Conservatives have said that, if elected, they would establish a new circular Food Producers Fund to support food producers and rural communities.

The money for the new fund would come from unspent money from Scotland’s existing Circular Economy Investment Fund to reduce costs for businesses, while increasing rates of recycling and energy recovery and maximising the value of waste streams. Projects eligible for funding would include on-farm anaerobic digestion, waste hubs, micro-plastic recycling facilities and infrastructure purchasing.

The Circular Economy Investment Fund has so far allocated approximately £5 million even though the total funding available to small and medium sized businesses is £18 million.

Maurice Golden, Scottish Conservative shadow environment secretary said, “Our Scottish Conservative food producers fund would give rural communities and farmers the ability to recycle as close to home as possible. The SNP ban on plastic incineration will leave farmers, particularly those in rural communities, with very few viable options for recycling. The Scottish Conservative plan would remove the barriers to recycling that many farmers and rural communities face.”

Photo caption: Maurice Golden MSP

Photo Credit: Scottish Parliament

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Unique heat exchanger increases resource efficiency by cutting process waste

With resource efficiency topping the agenda at this year’s Anuga FoodTec show, HRS Heat Exchangers is shining a light on a forgotten area of wastage in food processing – food lost during cleaning cycles and production changes. The HRS R Series of scraped surface heat exchangers removes food residue, meaning that food factories can now recover valuable product from the exchanger when heating, cooling or pasteurising viscous/sticky foods.

HRS International Sales & Marketing Director Matt Hale explains: “Normally, when processing viscous food products such as honey, syrups and purées, a certain amount will adhere to surfaces, such as the inside of pipe work, or become left in equipment after processing. The value of these lost products soon adds up. For example, this issue is estimated to account for 3% of product losses in the US dairy industry1.”

Globally some 5% of food loses occur during processing, although this varies according to region. In European countries the average figure is around 5% but this rises to 9% in North America2. To put this into context, that’s 4.1 million tonnes of food being lost during processing each year in the UK alone3. The sectors with the highest waste levels are dairy, animal and meat processing, fruit and vegetable processing and the manufacture of oils and fats4.

Traditionally flushing or so-called ‘pigging systems’ have been used to push product through key parts of the production system, like heat exchangers. However, both add complexity to the system and can result in high levels of product wastage. However, running a suitable scraped-surface heat exchanger, such as the HRS R Series, in reverse, enables the recovery of material without the need for such additional equipment.

The HRS R Series scraped surface heat exchanger is capable of removing much of the product before the cleaning or change-over cycle commences. This is made possible thanks to a scraper bar within each inner tube which enhances product flow; prevents fouling during operation and minimises the pressure drop. The scraper bar features a helical screw which rotates at high speed. When configured correctly, this screw can be run in reverse, removing product from the heat exchanger tubes without damaging it or changing its characteristics. The R-Series can be configured for both horizontal and vertical operation, so that gravity can also be used to help recover product from the tubes. Each unit can be supplied with one, three or six tubes and multiple units can be combined for larger installations.

“The R Series is particularly suitable for high value viscous products such as honey, treacle, custards and creams, where lost product can be expensive,” adds Matt. “The R Series can be emptied of the majority of the product without the need for any additional pumps or pressure systems, reducing both capital- and running-costs.”

Learn about the benefits of the HRS R Series on Stand D069 in Hall 10.2.

Originally posted at PandCT.com on 5 February 2018.

Nearly half of all fresh potatoes thrown away

UK waste advisory body WRAP has launched a new campaign, Save Our Spuds, to increase awareness of the level of waste associated with the vegetable. According to the organisation 5.8 million tubers are thrown away each and every day in British homes.

The waste accounts to around 730,000 tonnes a year, almost half (46 per cent) of the 1.7 million tonnes purchased every year, costing £230 million. Through its Love Food Hate Waste website, WRAP is sharing storage tips and recipes with the public which it hopes will reduce this figure.

Two years ago Swiss researchers also revealed that just over half of all fresh potatoes are were wasted in their country. Christian Willersinn, lead author of the Swiss work, blamed consumers’ high quality standards, as well as production loses.

Sainsbury’s have introduced opaque packaging on some of its potato lines to reduce greening in store. Jane Skelton, Sainsbury’s head of packaging, commented, “Last year we introduced new opaque packaging which is breathable, but prevents any light from reaching the potatoes, the most common culprit for greening.”

food

Photo Caption: WRAP has launched a new campaign to reduce potato waste.

Photo Credit: WRAP / Love Food, Hate Waste

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Tesco increases frozen lines to reduce food waste

Tesco has introduced a new range of frozen prepared produce of four items which it says are on-trend but tricky to prepare. These include pomegranate, watermelon, coconut and beetroot.

The retailer helps that the move will reduce waste by allowing consumers to use only what they need and keep the rest in the freezer. In the last year demand for bags of ready prepared frozen fruit slices at Tesco has soared by 35 per cent. The supermarket’s frozen smoothie range, which includes veg and fruit mixes, has seen a nearly 100 per cent increase in sales in the last 12 months.

Tesco frozen food buyer Marianne Aitken commented, “Our new frozen range is a delicious and hassle free way to help assemble that eye-catching dish.” All of the new frozen products come in easy to use re-sealable packs. The beetroot and coconut are already diced while the watermelon is in chunks and the pomegranate is seeded.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons.

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