Can consumer technology help reduce food waste?
Only recently has the idea of reducing food waste moved beyond a niche interest. Gone are the days when it was only a concern for Depression-era grandparents and self-righteous scavengers. But we’re not reviving the “can-do” thriftiness of our pioneers. When was the last time you saw a house with a root cellar? For most people, pickling and canning is a hobby you fall in love with after taking a Groupon class at a downtown craft store, then abandon after your first semi-sour bite. Despite the fight against food waste becoming mainstream consciousness, 38 percent of food in the U.S. is simply wasted, with the average household wasting about $2,000 worth of food annually.
Thankfully, companies and entrepreneurs are catching on to America’s recent (and, let’s be honest, half-hearted) return to food efficiency, and products designed to help people do their part to end the food waste epidemic—and save money—are finally starting to appear.
But the marriage of progressive environmentalism and profit-driven tech companies isn’t always a happy one. Like the proverbial Spaghetti Western, some products out there are good, some are bad, and some are downright ugly. We’re here to tell you which are which.
FoodSaver 4800 Series Vacuum Sealer Machine
Vacuum sealers for food have been around for a while, but previous models were only so-so when it came to actually sealing and creating a proper vacuum. More recent models finally make good on the manufacturers’ promise of preserving leftovers (almost) forever.
Top-of-the-line models like the FoodSaver 4800 can keep food edible and freezer burn-free for over four years, which means you could theoretically make pulled pork on US election night, vacuum pack it, freeze it, and enjoy it again the next election cycle. It can also be used to reseal (but not vacuum pack) Mylar bags and a variety of hard plastic bags (think potato chip bags).
The downside? It’s not cheap. Other vacuum sealers can be found for less than half the price. Plus, FoodSaver recommends using their FoodSaver bags for vacuum sealing, which the company says are made from a proprietary five-ply waffle-patterned material that prevents air pockets and leaks.
Finally, vacuum sealers don’t actually stop bacterial growth, they only slow the growth of certain bacteria. The fundamental problem with vacuum sealers is that they slow the growth of aerobic bacteria but not anaerobic bacteria, so it’s probably wise to just throw the bag in the freezer anyway. In many ways, the best use for a vacuum sealer is to prevent freezer burn and make frozen foods taste better.
That being said, vacuum sealers are a relatively cheap and effective way to prevent spoilage, keep meals edible for longer, and reduce food waste in your home.
Rating: 🪱🪱🪱 / 5
Hurom Personal Self-Feeding Slow Masterquitting Juicer H310
Looking like a Martha Stewart-esque version of Doc Brown’s Mr. Fusion, this upright juicer is surprisingly attractive, quiet, and helps remove all kinds of food debris (including unusable fibrous bits like root vegetable ends). It doesn’t take up much counter space (it’s 4-inch diameter), but the autofeed hopper can take an entire apple. Hurom says the juicer chamber is easy to clean. Instead of using a traditional, cumbersome strainer system, it uses interlocking screws to extract the most juice without passing through the pulp. Hurom touts its slow juicer speed of 43 revolutions per minute, which the company says gives it hand-squeezed quality and keeps juice fresher for longer.
But here’s a little secret about green juice: If you like green juice, Really I love it. If I don’t, it’ll taste like someone squeezed all the dregs out of your sink strainer and down your throat and charged me $10. No juicer, no matter how good, can convert a non-juice lover to embrace the liquid from week-old kale and radish scraps. Sugary toppings pretty much negate the whole exercise.
For those who love green juices and healthy veggie smoothies, the Hurom Personal Self-Feeding Slow Master Keating Juicer is a godsend to eliminate waste. But for those who don’t, it’s a waste of hundreds of dollars (yes, 7 times I’m going to install something about the size of a mini juicer from Target in the dust and grease trap on the oddly shaped cabinet above the range.
Rating: 🪱🪱 / 5
Romi Bloom’s Composter
British Columbia company Pela claims its popular home composter Lomi can reduce household food waste by 80 percent. Lomi Bloom is a countertop composter that uses heat and grinders to quickly turn food waste into compost, with what it claims is little odor. In just four hours, a bin full of moldy fruit, egg shells, and other food scraps is transformed into a dry, mulch-like plant fertilizer. The composter uses carbon filters, which the company says are “essential for optimal performance” and reduce odor, and a LomiiPod, which “enhances the decomposition process” and adds microbes to the mulch to give plants more energy.
The downside? Lomi comes with 45 cycles, or about three months’ worth, of its in-house carbon filters and a LomiPod. So, in true 2020s company fashion, the company encourages you to buy Lomi as part of a membership, which saves you $200 off the $600 purchase price of Bloom. The company occasionally offers discounts on membership subscriptions, but the quarterly price is around $25, or about $100 a year. So, it’s essentially another subscription service.
Rating: 🪱🪱 / 5
LFC Biodigestion System
At first glance, the LFC Biodigester, the brainchild of California-based Power Knot LLC, seems like the answer to your food waste dreams: just open the door, toss in your leftovers, and the fully automatic biodigester does all the work, converting all the organic matter into drainable grey water — all within 24 hours. Keep in mind, though, that the unit is roughly the same size and shape as a chest freezer in a commercial kitchen, so unless you have a restaurant-scale kitchen, it’ll require some major modifications.
It’s also always a red flag when a company doesn’t reveal the price of a product on its website: I found the smallest model listed for €1,000 on a third-party retailer’s website, but Power Knot asks that you contact them directly to speak to one of their representatives for an official price quote.
The LFC Bio Digester would be the perfect next Chekhov’s gun. Knives Out It’s a murder mystery, but not in the home kitchen.
Rating: 🪱 / 5
Mantry Chicken Coop
Sometimes the most effective solutions to food waste are the simplest, most proven ones.
A tech spin. In other words, feed chickens with food waste, and incidentally stop supporting factory farming, reducing the overpackaging and lack of freshness of supermarket eggs.
Nicknamed the “Tesla of chicken coops” (presumably before Elon Musk bought Twitter), Mantry features high-quality frames and fencing to keep the chickens inside and keep out predators, an easy-to-clean, compostable litter tray, and a 1080-pixel camera so you can keep an eye on your flock.
Assuming you actually have the garden space to do this, the most difficult problem you’ll have to overcome will be explaining to your therapist why you’re helicopter parenting.
Rating: 🪱🪱🪱🪱 / 5
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