Upcycling food industry by-products. Bringing the circular economy to the attention of decision makers

Food wastage represents a massive issue in today's society. It impacts the environment (e.g., climate change, resources depletion, biodiversity loss), society (e.g. food security), and the global economy. All the stakeholders could change systemically to transition towards the circular economy. Corporates must involve leadership, employees, suppliers, and consumers to build a more efficient and resilient system where waste and by-products generation is limited. The unavoidable waste could be valorized to new raw materials to reduce the environmental impact of their disposal. This thesis focuses on Barilla (the Italian food company since 1877) and its willingness to valorize by-products (e.g. bread crust), maximizing all aspects of sustainability: economy, ecology, and social equity. First, the author formed an Upcycling Team, an inter-functional group of voluntaries, to define Barilla's criteria for by-products valorization. Afterwards, the Team screened the possible bread crust valorization options (e.g. food product, beer, and animal feed production) using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a decision-making tool that allows selecting the best alternative under conflicting criteria. The method's strength is the ability to judge the elements in pairs and use qualitative evaluation. The AHP suggested that producing a food product (e.g. rusk) is the most sustainable option. Furthermore, the author carried out a partial Life Cycle Assessment to compare the global warming potential (GWP) of the production of upcycled rusk to animal feed accounting for the avoided production of the standard products. She demonstrated that producing upcycled rusks using 1 kg of bread crust results in greater net-reduction of GHG emissions than upcycled animal feed. These findings may push Barilla to implement an upcycled food product designed by adopting the eco-design approach to implement a sustainable food product from its raw materials to its end-of-life.