Travin Singh: Reducing global food waste by 2030
This week, the TTI Interview Series covers our member Travin Singh. Travin is the Founder and Group CEO of CRUST Group, a foodtech company at the forefront of food loss management. Interacting with people of all backgrounds shaped Travin's mindset in business. Travin believes that the answer to the global issue of food waste lies in collaboration with producers, consumers and everyone in between. His dream is to reduce global food waste by 1% by 2030.
In this interview, Travin talks about the importance of constantly adjusting in a startup environment. Analyzing and absorbing feedback is what transformed his vision in foodtech.
Plug & play upcycling platform for food services
Travin, tell us about how your work intersects with the impact space.
Based on a belief in a more circular economy, CRUST Group is a food tech startup that valorizes food waste & loss into beverages for food service and retail partners. Surplus ingredients like bread and fruit peels are reincarnated into products via two brands – CRUST, a line of sustainable craft beers and CROP, a line of health-focused and functional non-alcoholic beverages made from fruit and vegetable waste and loss.
The company aims to be the leading plug & play upcycling platform for food service and retail businesses and food manufacturers who want to reduce food waste & loss but experience high barriers to producing a branded product made from surplus ingredients.
CRUST Group's mission is to empower businesses in food service and retail to upcycle their food waste and loss, reducing global food waste by 1% by 2030, making an impact to our environment and Earth.
What is your own definition of impact?
To build a value-based company that gained profit but was mostly about finding solutions; kind of a reference for how business would be done in the future.
Solve the prevalence of food waste and provide value back to businesses
Travin, what do you see as the most important issue to address in the next 10 years?
We have a massive food waste problem. Every year, 1/3 of the food we produce, or 1.3 billion tonnes, is wasted. According to the UN, all that food amounts to about $750B in economic value. Furthermore, food waste & loss contributes significantly to global warming- 8% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. That’s 4 times as much GHG emissions as the entire aviation industry.
Food waste and loss is one of the biggest yet most underrated problems of the 21st century. And the reality is, food waste and loss is really hard to manage. This is where CRUST Group comes in to solve the prevalence of food waste and provide value back to businesses in food service and retail.
Educating the public and businesses is very important
What is the greatest challenge you face to scale your impact?
When we first launched, people didn’t totally understand what we were doing. They confused food waste and food loss and thought that we were taking food that had been consumed or used by others and turning it into beer. Actually, we were taking surplus bread that hadn’t been used or sold. Because it was a new way of doing things, we learnt that educating the public and businesses is very important.
People were also asking why just beer and bread, which was a further reason we decided to move into the food technology sector.
Transforming from a brewing company to a food tech company was also challenging for me. I was comfortable as the CEO of a brewery, so becoming the CEO of a food technology company involved a steep learning curve. We are also constantly looking for resources such as R&D and production facilities to make sure our processes work.
Leaving no CRUST behind
Travin, what is your long-term vision and how do you measure & quantify your impact?
CRUST Group aim to empower businesses in food service and retail to upcycle their food waste and loss into high-value products. We leave no CRUST behind. Our mission is to reduce global food loss by 1% by 2030 through our work. As a company, we will continue to find solutions to minimise food waste. Right now, the company is working with beverages. In the near future, the company will look into food, packaging and finally clean energy. To measure our impact, we track the impact we make every quarter using metrics as follows: 1. Amount of food waste/loss saved 2. Amount of CO2 emissions reduced. The number of organic and earned media outreach is another way we measure our impact.
Making the word ‘sustainability’ into a trend.
What are some misconceptions you’ve noticed regarding what “impact” is all about?
Sometimes it feels as though people are making the word ‘sustainability’ into a trend. To me, I wouldn’t necessarily think of myself as an eco-warrior, but when I was young, my mother would incorporate any leftovers from dinner into a meal the next day. It wasn’t about sustainability necessarily; it was just how we lived. So, for CRUST Group, sustainability was an ‘a-ha’ moment, not the driving force of the business.
Impact and sustainability is a byproduct of doing things the right way.
