Delicious Juice From Food Waste
TojTabii is working to establish a network of independent regional juice producers who are producing high quality, natural fruit juice while packaging and selling under one brand. Through partnerships and establishing new production facilities, TojTabii seeks to equip locals to earn a profitable wage locally and reduce food waste.
As an estimated 770 million people around the world suffer from food insecurity (and rising), nearly 1/3 of all food produced worldwide will be wasted (1.4 billion tons). And the United States leads this area with nearly 40% of it’s food ending up in landfills. This can happen for various reasons including “problems during drying, milling, transporting, or processing that expose food to damage by insects, rodents, birds, molds, and bacteria. At the retail level, equipment malfunction (such as faulty cold storage), over-ordering, and culling of blemished produce can result in food loss” (https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs).
Food waste also means resource waste. It takes water, electricity, fertilizer, and transportation energy to get food from farm to table. That means that 40% of those resources are wasted as well. Food waste also presents environmental issues. The food waste in landfills produces greenhouse gases, accounting for 11% of the world’s emission problems.
One project with PRINT to target this issue is TojTabii Juice in Tajikistan. Tajikistan is rich in fruits and vegetables and is a good place to utilize second hand fruit. It has just begun to establish a network of independent regional juice producers who are producing high quality, natural fruit juice while packaging and selling under one brand. Through partnerships and establishing new production facilities, TojTabii seeks to equip locals to earn a profitable wage locally and reduce food waste.
They were able to end 2021 with their first 200 liters of juice sold from 2 tons of second hand fruit. They were also able to begin some networking and settle on some equipment for their own micro production. Not only are they helping with food waste, but they help provide local living wages for workers that normally migrate to find work.
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Learn more about TojTabii and donate to their cause here.
