A startup company is leading the upcycling of discarded food and restaurant leftovers to create pet food packs for Hong Kong's dogs and cats, both in homes and shelters.

FurryGreen, founded in 2020, now has several varieties of sous vide pet food from salvaged ingredients headed for the landfills. 

The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department said Hong Kong has a long history of throwing out huge amounts of food daily, both good and bad like leftovers and food waste. Eco-conscious FurryGreen said some of these “ugly foods” can still be nutritious and, when upcycled as pet food, can contribute to lowering the pet food industry's carbon footprint.

More on FurryGreen’s strategy

Pirry Leung, the co-founder of FurryGreen and someone with work experience at a food waste recycling facility, said they are the first upcycling pet food company in Hong Kong that saw the opportunity to bring unused food back into the food chain. Every day, his company gathers unsold vegetables in supermarkets, scrap or surplus meats from processing facilities and other sustainable ingredients from markets and restaurants. They also keep an eye out for ingredients that can still be upcycled such as leftover pumpkins after Halloween and ugly veggies from farms. 

“Veggies contain nutrients that are so needed in our furry friends’ diets,” said Leung. “The veggies should feed our dogs, not feed the landfill.”

At their kitchen, the ugly foods are washed, peeled, diced, mashed and placed in small individual bags. All the sachets then go through a slow steaming process to transform them into nutritious, delicious, eco-friendly, fresh pet food. Leung said sous vide is the best way to preserve the ingredients' nutritional values and flavors. No fillers, additives or preservatives go into FurryGreen pet food packs. The finished products are later frozen and can be reheated for eight to 10 minutes. 

A typical 100g bag of FurryGreen pet food contains one main vegetable and one main meat to ensure balanced nutrition, according to the company. The bags can stay fresh for four months in the freezer. FurryGreen can produce about 1,000 bags of pet food every week.

Next, the company plans to develop fresh food packs for cats made of fish and pumpkin as the combination will provide protein and fiber at the same time. So far, they offer 80g bags of duck- and chicken-based meals for cats. 

Rescued food for rescued dogs

FurryGreen donates a portion of its pet food production to charities that save Hong Kong's stray dogs. The company owners said seeing the shelter animals enjoy their upcycled pet food encourages them to develop more new products. 

Using ugly foods for human consumption may not be easily accepted by the public, but in pet food it creates an opportunity to slowly educate pet owners to give ugly foods a second chance and to not be wasteful. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that the world loses or wastes an astounding quantity of food every year — 1.3 billion tons fit for human consumption and 1.6 billion tons of so-called primary product equivalents.

Link to the article : https://www.petfoodindustry.com/articles/11202-hong-kong-startup-upcycles-ugly-foods-as-pet-food

<Chinese Translation>

Furry Green 旨在減少垃圾堆的食物浪費。一家創業公司正在帶領將被丟棄的食物和餐廳剩餘物轉化為香港寵物鮮食，適用於家庭和收容所的貓狗。

Furry Green 成立於 2020 年，現在有幾種由挽救的食材製成的真空包裝寵物食品，這些食材原本將被丟進垃圾堆。

香港環境保護署表示，香港每天將大量食物扔掉的習慣已有很長歷史，包括剩餘食物和食物廢棄物等好壞不齊的食物。Furry Green 認為，這些“醜食物”中仍有許多營養成分，將其作為寵物食品再利用時，還能有助於降低寵物食品業的碳足跡。

有關 Furry Green 的策略

Furry Green 的聯合創始人之一 Pirry Leung 曾在食物廢棄物回收設施工作，他表示，他們是香港第一家將未使用的食物再次納入食物鏈的再利用寵物食品公司。每天，他們公司會收集超市未售出的蔬菜、加工廠的削減或剩餘肉類以及其他可持續的市場和餐廳食材。他們還會留意可以再次再利用的食材用於家庭和收容所的貓狗。

Pirry 曾在食物廢棄物回收設施工作，他表示，他們是香港首家看到將未使用食物重新納入食物鏈的機會，而成立再利用寵物食品公司的。每天，他們公司會收集超市未售出的蔬菜、加工廠的削減或剩餘肉類以及市場和餐廳的其他可持續食材。他們還會留意可以再次再利用的食材，例如万Halloween 剩下的南瓜和農場的醜蔬菜。

Pirry  表示：「蔬菜中含有我們的毛孩所需的營養。蔬菜應該喂我們的狗，而不是垃圾堆。」

在他們的廚房裡，醜食物會被洗淨、削皮、切碎、然後會經過慢煮的過程，變成營養豐富、美味、環保、新鮮的寵物鮮食。Pirry 表示，真空包裝是保存食材營養價值和味道的最佳方式。Furry Green 的寵物食品包裝中不含填料、添加劑或防腐劑。完成後的產品會被冷凍，可在 8 到 10 分鐘內加熱食用。

Furry Green 的一般 100g 寵物鮮食包含有一種主要蔬菜和一種主要肉類，以確保平衡營養。袋子可在冰箱中保存 4 -5 個月新鮮。 每周可生產約 1000 袋寵物食品。

救援食物給救援狗

Furry Green 將其寵物食品生產的一部分捐贈給拯救香港流浪狗的慈善機構。公司負責人表示，看到收容所的動物喜歡他們的再利用寵物食品，鼓勵他們研發更多新產品。

將醜食物用於人類食用可能不容易受到公眾的接受，但在寵物食品中，它創造了一個機會，讓寵物飼主慢慢學會給醜食物第二次機會，並不浪費。

聯合國糧食及農業組織 (FAO) 估計，每年世界會浪費或廢棄大量食物，包括適合人類食用的 13 億噸和所謂的原產品等值的 16 億噸。