Bread is amongst essentially the most wasted meals merchandise in western international locations. In Norway, an estimated 300,000 loaves of bread are wasted day by day – accounting for 18% of meals waste in households and 42% within the retail sector.
That is problematic given the quantity of bread consumed within the northern European nation (it’s thought as a lot as 96% of Norwegian shoppers eat bread commonly), and the affect of meals waste on the surroundings. Globally, an estimated 1.3bn tonnes of meals is misplaced or wasted annually and if meals waste had been a rustic, it will be the third-largest greenhouse gasoline emitter behind China and the US.
In response, a venture led by the Analysis Council of Norway (Nofima) is trying to develop new methods for the prevention and discount of bread waste from bakeries to shoppers. Its ambition is to chop bread waste by half.
Rethinking, lowering and repurposing bread waste
The four-year venture, which kickstarted in November 2023, is being supported by different analysis establishments, meals waste-focused organisations, members of the native cereal business, and bakeries in Norway. Outdoors of Scandinavia, Central Queensland College in Australia and the Metropolis College of London within the UK are serving as exterior advisors to the venture.
Coined ‘Bread Rescuers’, the venture goals to rethink, scale back, and repurpose bread waste. Companions will conduct a literature evaluation and interview business specialists and stakeholders to research how return agreements result in much less waste, however extra waste in bakeries. Research with round 30 households with youngsters shall be undertaken to establish ‘triggers and options’ that scale back bread waste.
In lowering meals waste, the venture will ask whether or not frozen bread may very well be a superb technique to forestall waste at each the patron and retail ranges. Nofima’s sensory panel will map the sensory properties of bread beneath completely different freezing and thawing circumstances. To analyze how bread waste may very well be repurposed, the group will develop and consider technological options that would see surplus bread upcycled into new substances and bakery merchandise. Client attitudes and value sensitivity to repurposed bread can even be examined.
“So as to achieve halving bread waste, it’s vital to seek out new options for using surplus bread. Within the venture, we are going to develop a crumble flour and potential new uncooked supplies, primarily based on returned bread,” defined Per-Ole Arneberg, high quality director at bakery Mesterbakeren.
“This can be utilized as an ingredient in numerous bakery merchandise, and our purpose is that the crumble flour can exchange a part of the wheat flour that’s presently utilized in bread.”
Why is a lot bread wasted within the house and in retail?
“We all know why Norwegians waste a lot bread, now we need to discover out which options can assist scale back bread waste, and the way the excess bread might be developed into new merchandise,” mentioned Nofima senior scientist and venture chief Valérie Almli.
So why is a lot bread wasted? In keeping with analysis, many shoppers don’t eat the tip items of a loaf of bread, which means that usually a good portion of the product is thrown away.
One more reason bread results in the bin too early is linked to notion of freshness. If a client buys an excessive amount of at a time, or forgets to eat it whereas nonetheless considered recent, it’s prone to find yourself the bin. In keeping with Nofima, many patrons overlook they have already got bread at house when within the grocery store.
Of all demographics, households with youngsters have been discovered to waste essentially the most bread. It has been advised {that a} vital quantity of bread waste in households comes from leftover sandwiches from packed lunches.
A possible resolution to this downside may very well be to ask youngsters to make their very own packed lunches at house or in school, mentioned Siril Alm at The Arctic College of Norway. “The households weigh the leftovers from the packed lunches earlier than and after they’ve tried out numerous measures, and that in itself could assist increase consciousness of how a lot bread they’re losing.”
Most bread waste (similar to most meals waste in developed international locations) happens within the house. However that’s not to say that waste doesn’t happen additional up the provision chain within the retail and bakery sectors. It’s estimated that as a lot as 35% of all bread waste happens in these sectors.
One motive for extreme bread waste in retail and bakery comes all the way down to provider agreements: usually main grocery chains are capable of return unsold bread to their suppliers, who in flip downcycle it into animal feed, compost, and even incinerate it. In keeping with Nofima, these agreements don’t incentivise grocery chains to scale back orders for bread merchandise.
“We are going to establish and map which systemic constructions that trigger bread waste among the many numerous stakeholders,” mentioned Nofima innovation researcher Sveinung Grimsby. “We all know that shops really feel that they’ve to supply prospects a wide array of recent bread proper up till closing time to make sure that prospects select their retailer. This assumption has not beforehand been challenged.”
Though the researchers don’t know if shops actively talk to shoppers that having a wide array of recent bread on provide all through the day results in extra bread waste, they need to examine ‘a few of [these] systemic constructions’ nearer.
“We are going to examine the worth chain from manufacturing in bakeries to the distributors’ transport and as much as the grocery shops that promote bread.”
The Bread Rescuers venture will run via to the tip of October 2027.
