S6 Ep6: Upcycle Certified— How Upcycling Accelerates Innovation and Ensures Nutritional Security with Angie Crone
“The beauty of upcycling is that it can apply to every stage of the supply chain, from the farm level all the way down to consumers… It’s really a mind shift on how we think about food and what is edible and what isn’t.” — Angie Crone
The global food waste epidemic is no longer a secret. Each year, billions of tons of food are wasted globally, including tons of perfectly edible produce that are lost even before they can reach homes, stores, and eateries. Thankfully, upcycling is now seen as a sustainable way to accelerate innovation and reduce food waste.
Upcycling is a creative approach to turning food waste and food products that may otherwise go to waste into something useful and profitable. Not only does this save food, but it also reduces environmental impacts. With upcycling, we can rethink how we view what is waste and what's being wasted.
In this episode, Justine sits with Angie Crone, the Interim CEO of Upcycled Food Association (UFA).
The organization's work is driven by a powerful mission to turn the most authentic economic movement into quantifiable success for upcycled food businesses. To this end, the organization has created the Upcycled Food Standard, a traceable, transparent label for upcycled foods, to identify and certify products that are using upcycled ingredients.
By joining their network of certified businesses, members can gain a competitive advantage and be seen as credible and trustworthy. Currently, their membership network is made up of upcycled food businesses from 20 countries worldwide - from small artisan businesses to large multinational companies and academic institutions.
Listen in as Justine and Angie talk about the role of upcycling in achieving nutritional security, accelerating innovation through upcycling, differentiating waste and food that's being wasted, the benefits of being Upcycle Certified, and much much more!
Connect with Angie:
Angie Crone is the Interim CEO Of Upcycled Food Association. A highly creative and motivated change-maker, she holds the ability to build purpose-driven programs from the ground up and shepherd them through the entire implementation process with success.
With great insight into the needs of the organization and its end users, Angie is well-versed in designing value-adding programs, building lasting relationships and ensuring everyone is invested in the process. She has also been part of human rights and environmental standards and frameworks, delivering high-value initiatives, and leading cross-functional teams. Her passion and drive, combined with a dynamic and motivating approach, have enabled her to successfully reach goals time and time again.
Her educational background is quite impressive. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University, a Graduate Certificate in Emergency and Disaster Management from American Military University, and a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management from Shepherd University.
Episode Highlights:
02:41 The UFA Journey
06:33 Accelerating Innovation Through Upcycling
10:32 Rethinking Food Waste
14:46 The Benefits of Being Upcycle Certified
18:20 Road to 300
Tweets:
Upcycling is a great way to reframe how we see what is waste and what is being wasted in the food supply chain. Join in as @jreichman and @qupcycledfoods CEO Angie Crone share how we can achieve food and nutritional security through upcycling and more! #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #UpcycledFoodAssociation #UFA #foodwaste #sustainablefood #upcycling #upcyclecertified #nutrition #businessbuilding
Inspirational Quotes:
05:30 "This industry (upcycled food industry) is only scratching the surface. There's so much to learn and there's so much community to build." —Justine Reichman
09:14 "A big part of upcycling that is sometimes missed in the conversation is about nutritional security." —Angie Crone
10:33 "The beauty of upcycling is that it can apply to every stage of the supply chain, from the farm level all the way down to consumers… It's really a mind shift on how we think about food and what is edible and what isn't." —Angie Crone
14:49 "Certification removes the education burden from individual companies and it's a powerful tool for brands so we want to accelerate that." —Angie Crone
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman
Hi, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reisman, and with me today is Angie Crone, the CEO of the Upcycled Food Association. Welcome, Angie.
Angie Crone
Hello. It's nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Justine Reichman
Yeah. It's great to have you there. I'm familiar with the Upcycled Food Association, but I know that at its current state, it's grown and that's why you've come in. So I'm excited to learn how it's grown and what you're up to there and learn a little bit about you before we even get into the Upcycled Food Association. So Angie, if you will tell us, you know, a little bit about yourself.
Angie Crone
Yeah. Well, like I said, it's great to be here and share our story and also my story. I would say, you know, I've been in the sustainable food systems place for over a decade now. But if I really trace it back, it's been my whole life, because I grew up on a farm in West Virginia, a small family farm. And that is where I really got really excited, obsessed with the idea of environmental stewardship, and sort of how that relates to our community and our families. And so that led me to study environmental science, environmental science and policy that led me to mission driven companies in the bay area where there's just a proliferation of these very forward thinking companies. And so I've spent the last 10 years really working with brands that have, you know, triple bottom line, sort of approaches to the world, you know, producing tea, or whether it's nose to tail butchery. And then I got into food waste, working with imperfect foods, which has recently merged with misfits market. So now they're like, be food waste reducers in the in the retail space, and that led me to UFA. So I started with Upcycled Food Association back in February as head of programs. I'm really excited about the work. And now I have the-- I've taken the reins here as CEO. So we have a lot of great things on the horizon.
Justine Reichman
Well, congratulations on that. That's exciting. And I think UFA, Upcycled Food Association, it's really an organization that created community for those businesses that are focused on upcycling and before there was no community for that.
Angie Crone
Right. Right. Yeah, I mean, I think you're really hitting on why they decided to come together. So the origin story for the organization is that there were these nine companies in 2019 that were all working in upcycling, and they met each other in different areas, trade shows, you know, in the industry, and they decided to come together to collaborate and really challenge this idea of sort of, you know, go it alone, capitalism, because what they realized was a huge opportunity with upcycling, lots of food waste. They were also working off some really impactful reports from the NRDC and reef fed on just, you know, we waste over 30% of the food that's produced, unsold, or uneaten huge economic opportunity. And so they came together to collaborate, to share resources, knowledge, connect supply chains, and then also to really define what is upcycled. What is upcycle food? And how do we really unify an industry around that. So it's a really cool story. So nine companies today were 260 companies across 20 countries. And honestly, I think we're just starting to scratch the surface companies that are starting to think this way.
Justine Reichman
So if we look back at those nine companies, are you able to list them?
Angie Crone
Oh, my, okay. Let's see. So I think I can get maybe halfway there. This is a really good question. So there's renewal mill, which does baking flours using Okara and other plant based sort of pulp leftover, regrains, which uses spent grain and I think you had mentioned.
Justine Reichman
We gave Dan on the show.
Angie Crone
Yeah. Net zero, which actually is a company that based in Minneapolis, and they actually have equipment that they use to process upcycled or potential upcycled ingredients. And I think there is also a pickled company. I'd have to get you there.
Justine Reichman
Ugly pickle or something?
Angie Crone
Ugly pickle. Yeah, yeah. So I need to get you the full founder list. But yeah, they came together in our, you know, founder of the organization who really started, okay. Now, I want to formalize this group was Turner Wyatt, who is our former CEO. And he had a history of sort of bringing groups together working in the food space as well. And so really, you know, brought it to life over the past three years. So it has been an incredible journey. And yeah, like I said, I think we're just getting started, honestly.
Justine Reichman
Yeah. We had Turner on the show as well, too.
"This industry (upcycled food industry) is only scratching the surface. There's so much to learn and there's so much community to build." —Justine Reichman
Angie Crone
All right. Wonderful.
Justine Reichman
Yeah. We're big fans, because we think that this industry is, like you said, only scratching the surface. And there's so much to learn on there's so much community to build. And I think that we can learn from these companies. And they were really trying to build something here so that they didn't have to do it alone. And by coming together and creating these credentials for people, and these, sort of the guidelines, right? It allowed people to be able to build their companies in a way that had guidelines. And for people to talk about this, and to grow their companies in a meaningful way, but also connect with each other and learn what's working, what's not, how they don't, what are some of the challenges they're facing? And how can they begin to work around these, figure out what's, you know, what's the path forward? And how can they grow them in a meaningful way? And what's happening with the farmers, what's happening, you know, with all the different things that go on within the supply chain to get to where they are today.
Angie Crone
Yeah. Yes. I mean, there's a lot of power, and just talking to have a place where you can just talk about what you're experiencing things that you've heard. And I think with food waste, in particular, it's really challenging the notion of business as usual, in the sense that some times food waste is looked at as it's not a problem in a supply chain, because you've already found a place for it, you've already got a hole, maybe, the farmer is coming to pick it up for animal feed, or it's already going to the compost or the landfill. But really breaking that open and seeing actually, is there a different opportunity there that could be turn your call center into a revenue center, basically. And so we see a lot of ideation that happens in the community, or staring. So we have an internal Slack community for members. And folks will say, "Hey, I have, you know, to tons of, you know, carrot deals, or I have leftover Okara, you know, and who can use it?" And then people will also say, "Hey, I need this." And be able to find that source. And so it's also creating an exchange of actual trading on these inputs as well, which really accelerates innovation.
Justine Reichman
I'm curious, in addition to that kind of innovation, that collaboration, what other kinds of innovation are you seeing as a result of the waste. So you see additional waste. And people are now they now have a place to talk about it and to share it. and as a result, are you seeing additional ideas and ideation coming out of that from all the waste that they're talking about?
"A big part of upcycling that is sometimes missed in the conversation is about nutritional security." —Angie Crone
Angie Crone
Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, just like every day, one of my favorite parts of my job is, every day I hear about a new idea that I've never even considered. So, you know, I think one input that I think is really interesting is, is acid whey, which is sort of a byproduct of yogurt making, highly nutritious and has been for decades now, a century even to just put on fields or flushed down the drain. But companies have found a way to ferment this into really healthy probiotic drinks. So that's one example that I think most people can understand is like a byproduct. But maybe the less conventional, less conventional innovations are around things like the avocado pit. So things that we have long said, "Oh, that's not edible, let's just put it in compost or landfill." There's actually a company now working to say, actually, there's a lot of nutrition in the avocado pit. How do we extract that, and actually keep nutrition in the supply chain. And so I think that's a big part of upcycling that is sometimes missed in the conversation is that it really is about nutritional security, as much as it is about diverting food from waste, reducing the impact on climate change, also about feeding people and getting nutritional food to them. And then the last example, which you know, still blows my mind is a company is looking at, you know, the nutrition extracts that you could have from food waste streams, and how might you apply that in space for like 3d printing of food. And so the innovation is incredible. We have, you know, people who are looking out very long term and then more traditional methods to which are just as important and critical.
Justine Reichman
Wow, well, thank you for sharing that. And it also makes me think, in addition to the food waste that we're seeing after it comes from the farmer, what about the food waste the farmers think about that they can't even use, like, the stuff that doesn't get leave the farm.
"The beauty of upcycling is that it can apply to every stage of the supply chain, from the farm level all the way down to consumers… It's really a mind shift on how we think about food and what is edible and what isn't." —Angie Crone
Angie Crone
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Justine Reichman
Are you talking about that? Are you seeing any of that? And what can be done about that? Is there a conversation happening there for you or are you guys really focused on the CPG products and the people that are building the upcycled products?
Angie Crone
Yeah. So I think the beauty of upcycling that it can really apply to every stage of the supply chain from that farm level all the way up to consumers. So even what we do in our kitchen, you know, using scraps and thinking differently about the ends that we used to cut off. Similarly, at the farm level, we're seeing people think about like printing differently. So imagine a cauliflower head. Normally for retail, you would cut off the bottom leaves, and the stalk and just throw those away, and then you know, they go into compost at the farm level. Now, there are companies who are saying to their growers, "Hey, I think we can use that and something." And what that does is creates another revenue stream, and it reduces the amount of food waste that's being decomposed and contributing to methane and carbon dioxide and all of that. So we're seeing like, it's really a mind shift, and how we think about food and what is edible and what isn't. And I think that's happening at every single level of the supply chain. And then in manufacturing, of course, you know, you're always going to have like pretzel bits, you know, from making pretzels, and like, the little bits fall off, and it's like, well, those just used to go into a trash or a waste stream. But maybe we can capture those and create [inaudible]. So that kind of thinking that I'm seeing it a lot more is really exciting.
Justine Reichman
It sounds it. I'm sure that you're seeing new things all the time.
Angie Crone
Yeah.
Justine Reichman
So it's probably fun to be part of that community, to see what's waste being wasted, and how people are innovating around the waste that they see and being creative, because, you know, they're already dealing with what they find. They're creating that product, and then they're having more waste and of course, it's natural for them to be like, "Okay, now how do I figure fix this problem?
Angie Crone
Yeah. If you like problem solving, then upcycling for you, because every day, it is like, "Hey, I've never thought about it that way, maybe we try it over here." And I love it too, because it can be very regionalised. So if you're a region, you know, I think microbrewery is a great example of this in the sand grain, it's like, if you're a region that produces a lot of microbrews, then sand grain might be a very regional, like, way to solve some of your municipal land waste issues, etc. So yeah, I think every day, like I love problems, I love figuring out solutions for them, and so this really challenges my creativity and like ability to be resourceful.
Justine Reichman
So within UFA, how are you guys expanding? You guys are, you know, relatively new, you guys have done a lot since you launched. But what's your agenda as you continue to grow and the community grows?
"Certification removes the education burden from individual companies and it's a powerful tool for brands so we want to accelerate that." —Angie Crone
Angie Crone
Yeah. Well, maybe I'll just throw some growth stats out, saying give us sort of a scope of where we come. Just in three years, during a pandemic, which has always blown my mind in terms of the UFA story. So, you know, I already said we started as nine companies, we're now 260 companies. We grew 30% last year. Those companies are across 20 countries. So this is not just the US or North America, or opportunity or solution is, it's really as global. One of our first orders of business as an organization was defining what upcycle food was and that's where we built the upcycle certified standard, which is the only certification mark for consumers that indicate that this food is actually diverting food waste from the landfill or compost. And we can audit that supply chain. So you can have a lot of stress and certainty about this product impact on the environment. So we started last year, uptake and adoption of that certification grew 118%. So we now have 324 certified products in the market. 85 of those are actually b2b ingredients, which is just a huge amount of growth is outpacing other certifications. The data indicate that we work with is astonished by the opportunity. And so I share that because that's where we're going. We're really doubling down on the certification in particular because it allows companies to sort of remove the education burden from individual companies and it's a really powerful tool for brands so we want to accelerate that. And we want more consumers to understand the potential. And I, you know, I think we know that consumers, like the pandemic really broke open the supply chain in a lot of ways. And so they can see now the vulnerability and the risk, and we want them to be able to take what they can control into their own hands and part of that is buying products that they feel good about.
Justine Reichman
So one of the things I'm really curious, though, is if I joined this organization, you know, it's a community. I'm wondering, what are some of the resources, you know, you're looking to grow and add for the community to be able to take advantage of into 2023, 2025, and beyond?
Angie Crone
Yeah. So certification is something that our community wants more of, so making it available in new market. So right now, it's predominantly available in the US and Canada. So looking to what's the next horizon is definitely something on our radar building out industry research. And so we just launched our second research fellowship and this is really important to help the industry and the companies understand, you know, food safety, legality, facing up cycled food in different areas, consumer attitudes and perception, how can you message this to get, you know, to optimize your sales. So we're doing a lot more on the industry research side.
Justine Reichman
Before you move on. So what is that fellowship look like and are you recruiting for it or how does somebody learn?
Angie Crone
Yeah, great question. So we just recruited this year's fellows, so we have eight fellows. They're all independent researchers, postdocs working, you know, in the food science space, or, you know, food regulation space, who basically submitted abstracts on types of things that they would want to study. And then we have a group of advisers who then review all of those submissions and select eight of them. So we actually grew our fellowship, we almost doubled it this year. Last year, we had, I think, five fellows, now we're at eight. So we want to continue to expand that. And we usually do recruitment, and, you know, the last quarter of the year. So it just launched, actually, last week Kerry group sponsored the program. And so we're really excited to be partnering with them, because they are such a global innovator on food ingredients and food technology.
Justine Reichman
So I'd love to know if you could just share with me who the initial nine founding members of UFA are.
Angie Crone
Yeah. So our initial founding members include Regrain, Renewal Mill, and Imperfect Foods, NETZRO, TBJ Gourmet, Barnana, which I think a lot of your listeners will also know, FoodMaven, and actually Drexel Food Lab.
Justine Reichman
Wonderful. So one other question I have for you, and I'm just really curious, because you guys have grown, you have not been around that long, you've went from nine companies to over 200. How many companies you hoping to grow within 2023? How many companies are you hoping to [inaudible] in the community?
Angie Crone
Yeah. So I mean, I think at least 300, which should be an easy win for us. But you know, I would love to continue our growth rate of, you know, 30% to 40% year over a year. And I would say we have a lot of conversations going and usually people join because they are looking for those supply chain connections. And also, they're looking for community to like, share their learnings. And so part of 2023 is also fostering more of that. So having more regional events and meetups lead to several trade shows where members can really use the UFA food as a meeting place to connect in, and then facilitate more workshops and educational seminars.
Justine Reichman
I really appreciate you joining me today on the essential ingredients podcast. And for those folks not familiar with the UFA, how might they go about finding it?
Angie Crone
Yeah. So go to www.upcycledfood.org. There's a lot of information there about our impact, about your problem of food waste, how to find certified products and how to become certified if you're a company. And if you're a company that's looking for a community to grow your impact growing up as a member.
Justine Reichman
Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us.
