In store pre-treatment
The novelty we propose in this Living Lab aims to implement a pre-treatment process, in-store, for the retail food waste in order to transform it into a dehydrated “powder” that can be used for microalgae feed.
Simply put, all that is needed is a drying machine that, thanks to automatic temperature and humidity control, dries and crushes the waste until just a powder with less than 80% of the initial volume.
Then, this powder needs to be valorised. When using this type of food waste in a circular economy approach, it is preferable to link the solutions with high value-added applications that can cover the corresponding costs and ensure the economic feasibility of the valorisation process.
*United Nations Environment Programme (2021) Food Waste Index Report 2021.