San Francisco, CA, April 27, 2022 – April 27th is Stop Food Waste Day and four companies are banding together for an online discussion to talk about how technology innovation is being used to combat the problem. In the US, 35% of all food is unsold or uneaten, translating to $408 billion in wasted food at a time when 1 in 8 Americans are food insecure. Imperfect Foods, Too Good to Go, Afresh, and Apeel will discuss how stopping food waste can help curb climate change and highlight some of the important work already being done.

Food waste happens in every segment of the supply chain, which means everybody has a role to play in limiting it. From farms to restaurants, grocery stores, and households, there are plenty of opportunities for innovation to reduce food waste. The discussion will cover some of the groundbreaking efforts already at work, including a grocery delivery service that saves unwanted but perfectly good food from lesser outcomes, a marketplace for consumers to purchase surplus food from local businesses, a family of plant-derived coatings to keep produce fresh two to three times longer, and an AI-powered system to help grocery retailers place truck-to-shelf orders. 

All four of these current solutions lie in the “Source Reduction” level of the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy, designed to reduce the volume of surplus food generated. Solutions at this level “are the best ways to prevent and divert wasted food because they create the most benefits for the environment, society, and the economy,” according to the EPA.

Speakers include Imperfect Foods Sustainability Manager Rose Hartley, Too Good to Go Head of Marketing Claire Oliverson, Afresh CEO and co-founder Matt Schwartz, and Apeel VP of Sustainability Jess Vieira. The event will be moderated by Good Food Advisors Founder and Principal Chris Cochran.