Baldor Specialty Foods, a New York City produce processor and distributor, has diverted 100 percent of the organic waste generated in its Fresh Cuts operation from landfill—thanks to its food waste initiative known as SparCs (the word “scraps” spelled backward).
SparCs is a waste prevention strategy developed by Baldor’s sustainability director, Thomas McQuillan. Baldor processes more than one million pounds of produce each week and was discarding a worrisome amount of usable food scraps, according to the company.
“We had to stop referring to these food products as waste,” said McQuillan. “It’s food. Usable, nutritious and delicious food. We just needed to find ways to consume it.”
Baldor’s SparCs program takes a multi-faceted approach to organic food waste, prioritizing human consumption whenever possible. This emphasis has inspired partnerships with companies like Washington D.C.’s Misfit Juicery, which recovers unsellable, blemished, “ugly produce” for use in cold-pressed juices.
Baldor now sends food trim to Misfit to be made into juices. In addition, Haven’s Kitchen, a Manhattan-based café and cooking school dedicated to forming community through the pleasure of cooking and eating, recently developed a food line made up of Baldor’s SparCs, including soups, sauces and cookies.
For many produce items, such as cantaloupe rinds and mango pits, which are unfit for human consumption, McQuillan worked with several partners who repurpose them into animal feed, including Brick Farms of Hopewell, New Jersey. Any remaining organic material, not used for human or animal consumption, is processed within an on-site waste-to-water system. With the SparCs program, Baldor has successfully diverted 100 percent of its excess food from ever reaching a landfill.
“We pride ourselves on being innovators and trail blazers in all facets of specialty food distribution,” said Baldor CEO TJ Murphy. “SparCs is just the next logical manifestation of that commitment, and we’re happy to present this sustainability model for others in the industry to adopt.”
In 2017, Baldor plans to create a dried vegetable blend or “flour” that provides a nutrient-dense boost to soups, smoothies, baked goods and more.
