From Trash to Treasure: Paving pathways for food upcycling to curb post-harvest losses in the vegetable supply chain of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines

Summary

This project embarks on an exploration of food losses and wastes in the vegetable industry of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines. Marked as the country’s most abundant highland farming sector, this region suffers acutely from multiple accounts of post-harvest losses, and these are exacerbated by the lack of well-defined waste management programs. The impacts of these losses are severe – ranging from declining farmer profits to compromised food security and even greater environmental impacts from biowaste decomposition. One emerging solution to the waste problem is to upcycle these losses. Food upcycling is generally a means of repurposing and valorising ingredients that would otherwise have been thrown away, in the form of value-added products. Part of the circular economy principle, food upcycling can be a viable means of offsetting profit losses for farmers. Despite this, the aggregated and real volume of losses and the feasibility of implementing upcycling practices in the Cordilleras remain unclear. Therefore, this project will first conduct baseline assessments on the composition and extent of post-harvest losses from the major highland crops in the region (carrots, cabbages, potatoes). Next, this project will lead pilot studies on upcycling these losses into products with culinary uses, such as dried vegetable powders as flavour additives or pickled and cured products. Findings will be compiled into a roadmap for viable ways to upcycle food, to be shared with stakeholders through engagement activities. This project will pave the way for spearheading circular economies in the Philippine vegetable industry. Moreover, this project will generate knowledge on food upcycling that will be made available to the general public. Put together, these efforts will transform the region into a competitive and robust model for sustainable food loss and waste valorisation, with the hope of developing best practices that other provinces can emulate.

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