EPA funds MU study on food waste

COLUMBIA In a perfect world, there would be no edible food wasted. But in reality, food waste is a constant problem.

Edible food waste means misspent resources from the fertilizer used to grow it to the transportation costs.

TheU.S. Department of Agriculture estimated 31 percent of retail and consumer-level food in 2010 was wasted. That's 133 billion pounds of uneaten food.

Four MU Bioengineering seniors are now being funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to research treatment of organic waste. The students are Jeremy Davis, Austin Davis, Sami Tellatin and Amanda Prescott.

The team will receive nearly $15,000 for the study,according to a release. The focus will be on the anaerobic digestionof food waste mixed with pig manure. Anaerobic digestion is a process microorganismsuse to break down organic materials.The team wants to find the optimal mix that is best for treatment.

"The stuff we think of as trash can be recoverable energy," said Christine Costello, project manager and anassistant research professor in theMU Department of Bioengineering.

The goal is to compareanaerobic digestion with two other options: Landfills with biogas capture and electricity generation and those without. Students will identify the most sustainable option the one that has the most energy and nutrient recovery, along with the least greenhouse gas emissions.

Managing food waste is challenging due to the varied nature of the materials.

Food waste has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio. The team will mix it with pig manure to achieve betterconditions foranaerobic digestion.

The study will look at edible and inedible food waste in order to evaluate the current waste stream and an ideal scenario where there is no edible food waste.

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EPA funds MU study on food waste