Triple F (Food From Food)

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From an ethical and sustainability point of view, food waste is unjustifiable and should therefore be minimised. In the food industry, there is an increasing awareness of the (re)appreciation of vegetable residual flows to combat food wastage, but the sector is still confronted with various difficulties, such as the large volumes to be processed and the strict hygiene requirements. Often, food residues are lost because no suitable reallocation is found for them. Triple F focuses on various residual flows from consumption, such as carrots, beets and potatoes in the Netherlands and leeks, tomatoes and chicory in Belgium. An opportunities map of the border region is being produced that provides an overview of supply and demand from companies with regard to vegetable residual flows, including the various technologies that can be applied to re-allocate residues, such as drying, freezing and heating. Twenty new value chains will be created on this basis. Agricultural and food processing or technical companies will be able to submit project proposals to qualify for support in executing their innovative proposal. Brainport Development, Stichting Food Tech Brainport, Flanders’ FOOD and Innovatiesteunpunt Boerenbond will be assessing the submitted value chain projects. There will be another four pilots, including one for leaks and one for carrots. The deep-freeze company, Van Rijsingen, will be responsible for the carrot pilot. No less than 80% of carrots currently ends up in the residual flow. Van Rijsingen has already opened a juice factory for separating carrot residue flows into carrot juice and press cake/fibres. In addition to fibres, other ingredients in the carrot residual flows, such as retinol and beta-carotene also have market potential after extraction. Beta-carotene can be used for manufacturing vegetable colourings, for example. These aspects are being further investigated within the pilot.

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