Supermarkets offer only unblemished fruits and vegetables. No dents – no stains – not too big and not too crooked. The reason is that most of this food with “small mistakes” is sorted out before and does not even come into our shopping carts. A pineapple with crooked leaves or an apple with small pressure marks – every year tons of fruits and vegetables end up in the trash because of minor optical flaws.
- 1.3 billion ha of agricultural land
- 3.3 billion tons of CO2
- 250 billion m³ of water
- 750 billion US $
are consumed for the cultivation of 1.3 billion tons of food that never is eaten. This represents 1/3 of the amount of food produced in the world.
This is focus of the the start-up Dörrwerk in Berlin, Germany. The basic idea: each fruit is worth being recovered. The company collects sorted out fruits directly from the regional producers or, in the case of tropical fruits, from the dealers. In the workshop it is then processed to a new snack, the fruit paper made from 100% rescued fruits.
Not only does the fruit paper itself contributes to waste prevention, but also the production by means of a specially developed drying oven is resource efficient. After the fruit has been cleaned, crushed and heated over several steps, the fruit puree obtained is applied onto thin silicone mats. The mats are stacked in boxes and dried in the oven for 12 hours. Through smart use of waste heat and an innovative ventilation control the oven saves 66% of energy costs during the drying process compared to conventional systems.
Because of the energy efficient oven, the company covers its costs and produce a competitive advantage through resource efficiency. The future goal of the start-up is to utilize 150 to 200 tons of culled fruit each year.