Professor Dolores O'Riordan:

Professor Hennessy has covered where the major waste is coming from as you move along the chain, with the level of waste being particularly high in retail and supermarkets and at that whole level. With all of the strategies she has talked about, intervention is needed at every stage. Due to the perishable nature of fruit and vegetables, even with the best implementation of strategies, waste is inevitable. I still believe there is an opportunity. Within Food Vision 2030, we commit to a circular bioeconomy and the Government is committed to that. Due to the very nutritious nature of their ingredients, fruit and vegetables lend themselves very well to the circular bioeconomy. Professor Hennessy gave the example of extracting starch from potatoes. There are many other high-value ingredients in this waste and, if we invest in technology and research, we could convert this waste to valuable byproducts or, indeed, upcycle it. A typical example of such upcycling is the conversion of misshapen apples that consumers may not want to buy into apple juice and adding value in that way.

That can be taken on to a much more sophisticated level. Some work is going into it but there are not the co-ordinated research programmes in the horticultural area, for example, that one would find in having value-added products, for example, coming from the dairy sector. There are very good opportunities from a circular bioeconomy point of view to be applied to the horticultural sector. That said, of course it is essential to reduce food waste and take all the measures that Professor Hennessy referred to.