A San Francisco-based startup by the name of Treasure8 might have found the key to solving the problem with food waste—at least partially. What Treasure8 has developed is a drying machine that can fully dehydrate fruits, vegetables, and fungi without stripping them of their nutrients in around in an hour. That’s brilliant, but what makes Treasure8 extra special is that they dry food waste from production facilities, meaning that all its products don’t require any new agriculture and can help cut down on our massive food waste problem. So rather than allowing these foods to wind up in the trash, they end up becoming next-generation snacks that are shelf-ready without oils or preservatives.

The idea for snack foods made from dehydrated vegetables originated through Treasure8’s original work with Google in 2014, who wanted the startup to develop a snack that would essentially deliver all the same nutrients as a meal, instead of the empty calories we often get when we graze. In the process of figuring out how to integrate the benefits of vegetables into snack food, the team behind Treasure8 learned about dehydration and decided to flip their business model to focus specifically on making healthy snack foods that deliver the nutritional benefits of produce but in a more shelf-stable and accessible format.

Now that the startup has perfected its dehydration technique, it wants to work with other food producers to ensure that more food that would otherwise be wasted gets turned into dry, nutritional snacks.

This story was one of the best from 2019, and we are happy to include it in our “12 Days of Optimism” as we welcome in the new year!