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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.

Can you magic cash out of nowhere? The kitchen bin is an efficient place to start out. 

In the UK, a mean household throws away no less than £60 value of meals a month, estimates local weather group WRAP. Globally, virtually 30 per cent of agricultural land is used to provide meals that’s misplaced or wasted, says the United Nations.

The EU has proposed a 30 per cent per capita discount in meals wasted in houses and eating places by the tip of 2030. Such targets will assist entice investor curiosity to the rising food waste technology sector, though there shall be limits to how a lot science can conquer human nature.

Consumers are the principle culprits. Households accounted for 70kg of the 131kg of meals wasted per inhabitant within the EU in 2021, in line with lagging Eurostat data.

Food waste applied sciences cowl a broad space. Investors have proved notably keen to place sizeable bets on biogas, produced from meals and agricultural waste. Shell this yr accomplished a €1.9bn takeover of Danish biogas producer Nature Energy.

Other applied sciences can embrace edible fruit coatings to enhance freshness.

However, funding for meals waste options within the US fell 14 per cent to $1.7bn in 2022, according to non-profit ReFED. The sector was swept up within the wider tech funding downturn. 2021 was additionally a file. So far in 2023, the funding tally is shy of $1bn.

There are obstacles. Not least, meals waste specialists acknowledge shopper behaviour might be tough to alter. Some applied sciences can add to the worth of meals and are subsequently vulnerable throughout downturns. That might trigger traders to pause earlier than gobbling up too many meals waste tech start-ups.