NIFA-Supported Analysis Innovates to Cut down Meals Decline and Waste: An Job interview with Robert Nowierski

Jan 12, 2021

The National Institute of Food items and Agriculture (NIFA) is USDA’s extramural science-funding company within USDA’s Research, Training, and Economics mission spot. What is NIFA accomplishing to help minimize foods decline and waste? This job interview capabilities insights from Robert Nowierski, NIFA, Nationwide Method Chief for Bio-Based mostly Pest Administration.

Buzby: For people who do not know considerably about NIFA, can you be sure to share the large image?

Nowierski: Positive, NIFA’s mission is to devote in and advance agricultural investigate, education, and extension to address societal worries, this kind of as how to lessen food items decline on the farm and foods waste afterwards in the provide chain, this sort of as extending the shelf lifetime of perishable foodstuff. NIFA doesn’t perform study, schooling, and extension activities, but we enable assist them at nationwide, regional, point out, and neighborhood ranges, though guiding national management and approach in these key priority locations. We companion with the Land-Grant College Process, as perfectly as other community colleges and universities, govt businesses, and private and nonprofit corporations to come across science-driven answers to the worries facing food items, agriculture, and the ecosystem and challenges impacting equally rural and city communities across the nation.

Buzby: Are these partnerships all by grants?

Nowierski: NIFA supports analysis, education, and extension routines at spouse establishments as a result of competitive grants, ability resources, and interagency agreements. Noncompetitive capacity money are authorized by Congress to aid investigation, education and learning, or extension actions at land-grant institutions on subjects of great importance to a condition or region, in alignment with USDA strategic ambitions. One illustration of a NIFA-funded investigate venture, which exhibits our early recognition of the foods decline and squander (FLW) difficulty, was a 2014 convention held by the College of Pennsylvania titled, “The Final Food stuff Mile: A Conference on Foodstuff Losses and Meals Waste In the United States.” The findings had been afterwards printed in the reserve “Foodstuff Waste Across the Source Chain: a U.S. Viewpoint on a World wide Dilemma,” which is available online for free of charge.

Buzby: Why is innovation so crucial for lowering food reduction and squander?

Nowierski: Innovation will be important in assisting to mitigate our foodstuff reduction and squander challenges in the foreseeable future. Modern methods in analysis, education and learning and extension will be necessary to decrease food reduction and waste from farm to table. And and finally, subsequent EPA’s foodstuff recovery hierarchy will assist minimize meals reduction and squander: minimizing the quantity of surplus meals donating surplus food items diverting food items scraps to animal feed making use of waste oils for rendering and fuel conversion and food items scraps for digestion to get better electricity composting, and utilizing landfill and incineration as a previous vacation resort.

Buzby: When considering about the entire farm-to-table foods supply chain, how has NIFA supported innovations that reduce foods loss and waste?

Nowierski: NIFA has assisted help improvements that decrease food items reduction and waste by means of its aggressive grant applications and ability-funded jobs. In response to this obstacle, NIFA created a Food stuff Reduction and Waste Template that provides a roadmap for which NIFA grant plans could help deal with foods losses and waste at the diverse foodstuff source chain levels, these kinds of as output postharvest, managing and storage processing and packaging distribution and retail and foodservice and customer losses.

Buzby: What are some examples of NIFA-funded study and innovations aimed at reducing food stuff decline and waste?

Nowierski: One innovation is what we contact ‘functional ice” (‘Functional Ice’ Reveals Food Industry How to Continue to keep Neat and Cut down Reduction), which is an additive-increased product or service that extends foodstuff storage and shelf-lifestyle by creating decrease temperatures and melting additional bit by bit than traditional water-primarily based ice. Additional features permit the gradual-release of antimicrobial alternatives that defend uncooked meals by getting rid of the construct-up of spoilage-leading to micro organism. It has been revealed to increase shelf everyday living of tray-packed poultry thigh meat by a single to two times. The researchers are now investigating its potential for commercialization, these as by hunting at the very best ways to incorporate the technological innovation into business ice-generating devices.

An additional NIFA-funded innovation underneath progress, but demonstrating excellent guarantee, is a extremely delicate and unique check strip for key foodborne pathogens (e.g., Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica). This technology significantly decreases the time necessary to take a look at pathogens in foodstuff from 24-72 several hours to approximately 30 minutes. The time saved to check pathogens may well cut down the distribute of pathogens and lower foodstuff loss and squander.

Buzby: I have an understanding of NIFA delivers money to little businesses to assist them build and marketplace new technologies – and this could help foods squander-relevant systems and products come to market. Tell us additional.

Nowierski: Indeed, the Smaller Business Innovation Investigate Plan (SBIR) from NIFA gives help to tiny corporations via the Section I Software for them to exhibit evidence of notion of an strategy that could be likely commercialized (funding level $100,000). NIFA also offers Phase II Application funding for the profitable Stage I candidates to just take their concept to commercialization (funding degree $600,000).

Buzby: So modest corporations with foods waste reduction systems should really get to out to NIFA to study additional about how USDA may support them deliver those items to sector. That potential customers me to my future dilemma. Why is NIFA-supported investigate an essential compliment to private-sector analysis?

Nowierski: The food decline and waste issue is these a elaborate dilemma that it will get exploration investments and achievements from equally public and private sectors to enable resolve.

Buzby: How do you see food stuff reduction and waste steps in relation to environmental sustainability?

Nowierski: It is really worth noting that in 2016, NIFA’s Pilot Science Outcome Committee (SOC) on Environmental Sustainability (led by Nowierski) analyzed NIFA investments throughout the meals loss and squander supply chain all through 2009-15. This committee determined food items loss and squander as the top rated science priority that as a result of additional investments, could support address environmental sustainability.

Buzby: Can you share a number of more illustrations of research that NIFA has underway that present guarantee for lessening food reduction and squander?

Nowierski: Absolutely sure, we have all types of appealing and promising investigation underway at the distinctive farm-to-table levels of the foodstuff offer. Some reports concentrate on increasing packaging, these as a modest packaging insert or sachet that slows down deliver getting old and deterioration and will increase shelf-life by at minimum 40 p.c. For case in point, this technological innovation can extend the 10-working day shelf-life of Florida avocados by nine times. We have supported other function producing price-extra solutions from food field processing waste. For example, one particular review integrated significant degrees of used grain from the brewing industry in distinct recipes and making use of unique cooking solutions to come up with a tasty sweet potato snack. Other experiments check out how to change food waste into high-value chemical compounds, animal feed or renewable power in strategies that make perception economically and can aid commercialization. One particular analyze is developing the technological innovation for affordable manufacturing of hydrogen from agricultural generation and foodstuff processing squander. Hydrogen is regarded as a promising option cleanse electrical power supply for the reason that it doesn’t create greenhouse gases.

This web site sequence highlights the work of innovators in the food stuff loss and waste world as section of a federal interagency meals reduction and waste collaboration in between USDA, EPA, and Food and drug administration and personal-sector partners to affirm their shared motivation to work in the direction of the countrywide purpose of decreasing foods loss and squander by 50 % by 2030.

For further more examining:
USDA weblogs on food stuff squander