For many home cooks, food waste is a constant challenge—what can you do with apple cores and onion skins? Composting and food scrap recycling are growing trends, and one ̽̽ undergraduate is taking a close look at their results.
Cora Pohlman, an environmental engineering major, teamed up with ̽̽’s Climate Kitchen, which works to reimagine the relationship between cooking and climate change. Pohlman’s research focused on a tabletop food recycler called the FoodCycler, provided by .
The FoodCycler transforms food scraps into a material called "Foodilizer," and Pohlman analyzed its contents to see how it stacks up as a potential soil amendment. In addition to Pohlman’s work, Andrea Rebimbas, a Nutrition and Food Science major, is currently investigating whether the Foodilizer material can be deemed food safe and food grade, thus useable for human or animal consumption.
This research aligns with the Climate Kitchen’s five tenets for sustainable cooking: Whole Food Utilization, Low Waste, Plant Forward, Regional and Location Sourcing, and Integrating Tastes and Habits. The Climate Kitchen aims to incorporate and investigate the latest cooking and research technologies focused on energy efficiency, water conservation, smart monitoring, and preparation practice from “nose to tail or root to seed.” The Climate Kitchen is funded in part by ̽̽’s Food Systems Research Center which funds collaborative research that puts people and the planet first.
About the FSRC:
The ̽̽ (FSRC) is the first USDA-funded research center to study the interconnectedness of all parts of a regional food system, from farm practices to food access. They work to uncover solutions to pressing issues through the lens of food and farming. As pioneers in USDA-funded research, the FSRC is at the forefront of discovering how what’s on our plate affects our society and the planet.
