The concept of upcycling food is promising and very on-trend, but big processors are slow to sign on.
When Ben Colvin, president of Devil’s Foot Beverage Co., seeks the ingredients he uses in the company’s non-alcoholic sparkling beverages, he doesn’t turn to traditional suppliers. Rather, he usually finds material that is headed to the dump—pomace left over from apple juice pressing, blemished peaches from a university’s research fields or “ugly” fruit from local orchards.
In other words, Devil’s Foot is “upcycling” food that might otherwise have been landfilled.