New technique to end food waste
With a third of the world's food, approximately 1.300 million tons, lost or wasted, finding solutions to avoid the disposal of waste in landfills is as important as stopping the waste of food at source. Two new technologies could be the key to a future without food waste.
"Food waste should have a high value. We are treating them as a resource and making marketable products from them, "said Roy Posmanik, a researcher at Cornell University. Posmanik added that food waste still contains a large amount of carbon.
While traditional technologies for converting food into fuels generally work on the basis of anaerobic digestion, a process that slowly breaks down organic matter and captures the resulting methane for use as fuel, Cornell University is using hydrothermal liquefaction that quickly converts food waste into biofuel The process is similar to that of a pressure cooker.
After the process of refining the biofuel, there is an aqueous liquid that can be subjected to anaerobic digestion to convert the waste into methane and generate electricity or energy.
"If only anaerobic digestion is used, it would take weeks to turn food into energy," said Posmanik. In addition, he noted: "The aqueous product of hydrothermal processing is much better for organisms in anaerobic digestion, than the direct use of raw biomass. Combining hydrothermal processing and anaerobic digestion is more efficient and faster. We are talking about minutes in hydrothermal liquefaction and a few days in an anaerobic digester ".
Comment
The loss and waste of food is a problem that is becoming more relevant globally due to its impact in environmental, social and economic terms. In Chile, the National Committee for the Prevention and Reduction of Food Losses and Waste was recently established under the auspices of FAO and with the participation of public and private organizations, such as the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies (Odepa), the Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA), the Chilean Agency for Food Safety (Achipia), the University of Santiago (Usach), and the Most Sustainable Food and Value Chain (CAV + S).
The constitution of this committee is part of the Regional Strategy for the Reduction of Food Losses and Waste, led by FAO, which reports, among other issues, on the need to establish public-private partnerships to address this problem.
Although the recommendations to address this situation prioritize the actions linked to the prevention of waste and waste, initiatives such as the conversion of waste into biofuels are undoubtedly a contribution and highlight the relevance of research, development and innovation to face the challenge of preventing and reducing them.
The data collected in the second Food Loss and Waste Bulletin of FAO (2015), estimate that, in Chile, in the case of bread, 63,3 kg is wasted per year per family, which corresponds to 16,7% of average consumption of the national population.
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