A Canadian startup is seeking to reduce food waste by rescuing fruits and vegetables before they enter the waste stream and processing them into powders and flakes that can be used in other applications.
Trendi, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has developed robotic, mobile processing facilities called BioTrim units, which it can take to farms, food manufacturing facilities, and other places where fruit and vegetable waste is generated. The organic materials can be freeze-dried on site, reducing their mass to a small fraction of the original volume while preserving almost all of the nutrients, Christine Couvelier, president of Trendi, told SFA News Daily.
“We can use any part of the fruit or vegetable—the skin, the pulp, the seeds—whatever goes in one end, comes out the other, in the form of powders or flakes.” she said.
Those powders and flakes can then be used as ingredients in a wide variety of applications. They can add flavor, color, and nutritional content to other foods and beverages, as well as to pet foods, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products and more, said Couvelier, who has long had her own food consulting business, Culinary Concierge, also based in Vancouver.
Trendi currently has a prototype BioTrim machine In Vancouver, and is preparing to begin operating two BioTrim units in Ecuador, where they will process produce from multiple farms.
In addition to the BioTrim machines, Trendi is also gearing up to roll out smoothie vending machines, called The Smoothie Machines, that will make beverages using rescued produce that has been converted into purees. The Smoothie Machines will begin appearing in British Columbia venues in the coming weeks, Couvelier said, using purees from the farms in Ecuador.
Locations planned for The Smoothie Machines include colleges and universities, airports, retail stores, and other venues. Additional Smoothie Machine rollouts are in the planning and testing stages in Europe, she said.
Trendi has also been in talks with potential partners throughout the U.S. for its BioTrim machines, Couvelier said.
The company was co-founded in 2019 by food industry veterans Craig McIntosh, Trendi’s chief executive officer, and Carissa Campeotto, chief marketing officer. They have secured multiple rounds of private investment, helping the company ramp up significantly in the past 18 months, growing from half a dozen employees to more than 60 today.
Trendi also has begun gaining some recognition: It recently won first place in the LG NOVA Innovation Festival pitch startup competition in San Francisco, and last year it was a semi-finalist in the Canadian government’s Food Waste Reduction Challenge.
The company’s dual mission, Couvelier said, is to eliminate food waste at its source, and to find solutions for alleviating hunger. By condensing organic waste materials from fruits and vegetables into powders and flakes, they become shelf-stable and can be easily stored and transported.
“If you are selling tomatoes to manufacturers to make paste or sauce, ultimately you are shipping water,” said Couvelier, noting that shipping freeze-dried fruits and vegetables can cut transportation costs by 80-90 percent.
In order to help spur innovation using the freeze-dried flakes and powders, Trendi sends them to culinary colleges and encourages them to be creative in discovering potential uses, Couvelier said.
She said the industry is currently at a tipping point when it comes to food waste, with widespread understanding of its importance in relation to sustainability and in reducing hunger.
“Food waste is neither a fad nor a trend,” she said. “It is something we have to take care of and act on, right now.”
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