Raise your hand if you haven’t sheepishly thrown out an unopened bag of salad or a limp head of broccoli in the past year? It is thought that Irish households waste between €700-€1000 worth of food each year, so food waste is a problem.
One million tonnes of food is wasted in Ireland, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; CSO 2021). Eight per cent of that is lost at retail level, explains Lorraine Foley who is a researcher and lecturer in horticulture at the Technological University (TU) Dublin and principal investigator of the Leaf No Waste project. “Of that eight per cent, one third is fruit and veg. And of those one million tonnes, nine per cent is lost at a farm level, at the primary producer level.”
These are shocking figures. Yet it would be more shocking if we didn’t continue with our use of one of the environmental bad guys - plastic. Without its cloaking and preservative qualities, much of the food we farm would never make it to our forks – think herbs, leafy greens, green vegetables, and soft fruit. This is a major bugbear for those who are fighting climate change, she explains.
“Horticulture is very reliant on plastic packaging because it ensures the produce leaves the field and gets to the consumer as fresh as possible”
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Efforts are underway to find viable alternatives to standard plastic packaging. One of these is a plastic that is compostable. And Foley, along with Jesus Frias Celayeta, academic lead of the environmental, sustainability, and health institute at TU Dublin and Lael Walsh, research officer at Teagasc, are trialling innovative methods of growing plants to be a little bit more robust so that that the quality of produce is maintained in these more sustainable packaging solutions.
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The Leaf No Waste project is an endeavour that is funded by the Science Foundation Ireland Future Innovator Prize Food Challenge.
The team is examining the potential impact of introducing a bio-stimulant to certain produce, which steadies its rate of perishability. In effect it slows down moisture loss and quality is maintained. This has potential cost benefits to the supply chain.
Speaking to growers, Foley discovered that there are large knowledge gaps in the industry when it comes to alternative, compostable packaging and its potential shortcomings when used on perishable goods.
It isn’t as straightforward as simply getting rid of all plastic packaging on vegetables and salad, she explains. “There is a reason plastic is so ubiquitous - it works. If we remove the packaging altogether, so that herbs and fresh-cut leaves would hit the supermarket shelves “naked” it would mean that the produce would have a shorter shelf life.”
“If we’re to reduce out plastic packaging use, plant produce needs to become more resilient”
Without packaging the product would go limp and turn yellow,” she explains. Because it is exposed to the air, respiration will accelerate, and the plant will die. “For example, in sealed packaging an iceberg lettuce should last up to seven days in the fridge. Without it, it may only last five.”
The plastic provides a microenvironment that retains its freshness. Quality control is maintained. She says horticulture is very reliant on plastic, but it plays an important role in food distribution. “For example, a cucumber wrapped in one gram of plastic wrap gives it a best before date of 14 days. If naked and plastic-free its saleability might just be three or four days. This has massive ramifications for both farmers and retailers.”
Foley concludes that for now eliminating plastic could indirectly mean more food waste. “We have committed, as a nation, to reducing food waste by 50 per cent before 2030. We can’t encourage farmers to stop using petrol-based plastic packaging and at the same time land them with higher produce losses – and therefore less earnings. We must strike a balance.”
The thinking behind the Leaf No Waste project is to explore if the plants themselves can be given a boost at the growing stage, so that they would stay fresher for longer after harvest, she explains. By applying a widely used bio-stimulant - a plant-usable form of silicon, silicic acid - during the growing process, the idea is that a stronger, more stable plant will result, one that will cope with newer packaging constraints.
“It’s safe and non-toxic. When in the soil it is taken in through the roots. It improves the structure of the plant, right down to the level of the cell walls. It increases the resilience of the crop and is used extensively in Europe to withstand drought.”
Foley believes the research results could be a game changer for growers, retailers and the consumer. “If the integrity of the produce could be a bit stronger it would better cope with this change to sustainable packaging.”
The work continues. The consumer’s point of view is a critical part of the research, and they are conducting a survey to find out more about more about people’s perceptions and behaviours, she explains. “What are their concerns, and will society be willing to pay extra for a solution delivering sustainability?”
The project’s discoveries will have a role in the farming of many other products from mushrooms to herbs, and strawberries and be rolled out in other countries.
“We really want to scale up and get a profile on all the major hitters in the horticulture sector,” she says. “It is a high value area as we are extraordinarily good at growing here in Ireland, but it would not be restricted to Irish growers, we are thinking bigger.”
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Facts taken from EPA
Retail 8% national food waste
At retail, food waste is 36% is veg and fruit combined
[20% veg, 16 % fruit loss at retail]
Reducing Commercial Food Waste in Ireland published in 2019
https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/national-waste-statistics/food/