Aussie innovators tackling the war on food waste

We grow up learning not to waste what's on our plates, but what’s the true cost of food waste in Australia?

8 min read

Published 03 Mar, 2021

Key Takeaways

According to a national study from 2018/19, Australians waste 7.6 million tonnes of food every year, costing the economy an annual $36 billion across the food supply chain.
“When food is buried in landfills, it produces methane that is 25 times more damaging than car exhaust fumes.” says Katy Barfield
Australian manufacturers and primary producers can now see a much-needed return on their products by selling food that might have otherwise gone to waste.

Katy Barfield and Krista Watkins are two entrepreneurial Australians with very different and ingenious solutions to reduce food waste.

According to a national study from 2018/19, Australians waste 7.6 million tonnes of food every year, costing the economy an annual $36 billion across the food suppy chain.

“A quarter of fresh water used around the world each year goes towards growing 1.3 billion tonnes of food that’s wasted,” says Katy Barfield, founder and CEO of Australia’s online marketplace for surplus food, Yume.

“And when food is buried in landfills, it produces methane that is 25 times more damaging than car exhaust fumes.”

Yume CEO and founder standing in front of fresh produce in store

Australia's first online surplus food marketplace

Katy and her Yume Food team are doing their bit to change that with a new approach to food waste prevention.

“How did we, the most intelligent species on the planet, at the top of the food chain, design this system?” Katy asks.

“We can design amazing machines and buildings, but we didn’t properly design the one thing that keeps us alive.”

Yume founder sitting down facing camera being interviewed in office

Created in 2016, Yume is Australia’s first online surplus food marketplace. It connects suppliers (farmers, manufacturers and food suppliers) with buyers (such as industrial caterers, manufacturers, sports stadiums, hotels, restaurants, and pub groups).

Australian manufacturers and primary producers may see a much-needed return on their products by selling food that might have otherwise gone to waste.

“If something is imperfect or its packaging is damaged or incorrect – even if it’s safe to eat – suppliers won’t put that to market because they think it will damage their brand,” Katy says.

“We’re working with companies to find a better solution than just burying it.”

Instead of paying to send food to landfills, suppliers can list it on Yume. Buyers can then purchase high-quality ingredients at a fraction of the price – and help to save it from being wasted.

Yume founder walking through produce aisle in store

This isn’t Katy’s first attempt to fight food waste. In 2006 she was the Founding CEO of SecondBite, which aims to deliver donated fresh fruit and veg to community organisations that provide much-needed food to those in need.

When visiting farmers for donations, she saw firsthand how food waste also put farmers under additional financial stress.

“We are in a wealthy country, and the people growing our food can’t make ends meet because their crops are being rejected for not meeting specifications."

"That’s why I started Yume – to transform the system for a more sustainable future.”

Going bananas for food waste

Krista Watkins and her husband Rob are tackling food waste from a different angle by extending the useful life of produce beyond a few days or weeks.

It all began in 2010, when Rob drove over a Lady Finger banana on their banana farm in Walkamin, Queensland. The banana burst into dust. Knowing how many millions of bananas are wasted each year, Rob decided to turn them into banana flour. Rob and Krista now produce 350 kilos of banana flour a week. And they’ve expanded their range further.

Their company, Evolution Industries, uses proprietary NutroLock™ technology to lock in the nutrients in fruit and vegetables. Rob and Krista won a prestigious international Gold Edison Innovation award for the system in 2017.

“We process fruits and vegetables into powders or juices that have a long shelf life,” explains Krista. “NutroLock™ finally puts time on our side. The clock is ticking from when the crop grows in the ground. Now we have a shelf life of two to three years while we figure out what to do with it.”

Reduce, reuse, repurpose

The Evolution team works with university and medical experts to determine the nutritional value of the produce and explore alternative uses for it – such as prebiotic and probiotic fibre, Vitamin A supplements, and the natural antioxidants used in cosmetics.

“A lot of time, money, energy, love and resources go into producing crops for people to eat,” Krista says. “Imagine going to work for a week, and at the end of the week, your boss says you did a lot of really great work, but we can only use half of it, and I’m only going to pay you for half of it. That’s the reality farmers face every week of the year.”

Striving for sustainability

Krista says Evolution is always looking for ways to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining the fight against food waste.

“We keep investing in our own operation because we believe in progress,” she says. “We’re releasing a new drying technology this year that will dry and mill ingredients simultaneously. This will take out a processing step and double the amount of dry powder we can produce, using the same amount of energy.”

Yume aims to prioritise sustainability and energy efficiency by tapping into its suppliers’ existing infrastructure – for example, by using their warehousing and transportation systems to store and deliver food. If suppliers can’t organise delivery to buyers, Yume can help to connect them with third party logistics partners.

“Other organisations have spent a fortune building warehouses and mobilising all these extra trucks,” she says. “I chose not to do that because I really want to have something that’s light on the planet.”

Reducing the enviromental impact

By using under-utilised vans and warehousing, Yume can help reduce its environmental impact – including fuel, power and greenhouse gas emissions.

Although their approaches are different, both Katy and Krista are fighting for a healthier, more sustainable planet – now, and in the future.

“I grew up on a cattle station,” Krista says. “My dad would talk about how you’ve got to leave the land in better shape than when you first came across it. It’s about making sure there’s a world for people to enjoy for generations beyond us.”

Food waste reduction

Other Australian organisations like FoodBank WA also play a key role in addressing Australia’s $20 billion food waste problem.

As part of their food waste and grocery rescue operation, they re-direct and re-purpose 37 million kilograms of food and groceries that would otherwise end up in landfill, saving more than 81 million kilograms of CO2 emissions every year.

AGL has been proud to support Foodbank WA over the years, which helps to support families in need and continues to rescue and redirect massive volumes of food that would otherwise be sent to landfill.