From side streams to new business: Danish solutions turn waste into value

The impact report from Champions 12.3 marks a decade of global action to reduce food loss and waste. As attention increasingly shifts from setting targets to delivering measurable results, Danish companies and knowledge partners are developing solutions that turn unused resources into new products and business opportunities.

Reducing food loss and waste is central to SDG 12.3 and remains one of the major challenges facing global food systems. The A Decade of Impact report points to the importance of clear targets, measurement and concrete action across the food value chain.

Turning side streams into valuable products
In Denmark, that transition from ambition to implementation is already taking place.

One example is the Danish Food Upcycling initiative, which brings companies and knowledge institutions together to identify new business opportunities in food-industry side streams.

Running from 2025 to 2027, the initiative will engage more than 200 Danish and international companies and provide tailored development programmes for around 40 companies, focusing on areas such as processing, food safety and shelf life.

The ambition is not simply to manage waste better, but to create more value from resources that are already available.

This reflects a broader Danish strength in combining technology, biosolutions, processing know-how and cross-sector partnerships to reduce food loss and waste and make better use of resources across the food value chain.

From reducing waste to creating value
The global food loss and waste agenda is increasingly becoming an implementation agenda.

The Champions 12.3 report shows that reducing food loss and waste can also make economic sense, with 99 percent of sites studied achieving a positive return on investment.

This makes the Danish food cluster a relevant partner for solutions across the value chain – from storage, processing and shelf-life extension to digital monitoring, biosolutions and the upcycling of side streams. Danish companies and knowledge partners can contribute technologies, know-how and cross-sector collaboration to reduce losses, improve resource efficiency and create more value from existing resources.

The challenge towards 2030 is therefore not only to waste less, but to scale solutions that create more value from the food and resources already produced.

Explore more about how we can reduce food loss and waste throughout the entire value chain in Food Nation’s Global Food Talk here.