Verhoeven debuts bread recycling machine designed to reduce food waste

NETHERLANDS – The Verhoeven Family of Companies is set to unveil Repeatloaf, a revolutionary machine that turns leftover bread into a stable, fermented powder that can be used to make dough or as a bread improver, offering bakers a practical tool to address one of the major issues facing the food industry.

Food waste accounts for about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing even the carbon footprints of the US and China.

Bread continues to greatly contribute to food waste. Approximately 15% of all baked loaves in Europe alone go unsold or unused annually, resulting in a waste of about 15 billion kg of merchandise.

However, one in ten people on the planet are undernourished, highlighting the urgent need for more sustainable patterns of production and consumption.

Using an automated process, Repeatloaf turns leftover bread into a “precision fermented powder” that has a shelf life of months as opposed to days.

Up to 64% of the cradle-to-bakery emissions linked to traditional bread production—such as deforestation, tillage, fertilization, irrigation, milling, and transportation—can be avoided by diverting unsold loaves from landfills.

Additionally, the system can save the approximately 1,500 liters of water and 1.3–5.5 MJ of energy that are typically included in each kilogram of finished bread.

This innovation aligns with the EU’s goal of reducing home and industrial food waste by 10% and 30% respectively, and concurrently with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 which calls for a 50% decrease in food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030.

By encouraging bakers to “Give Loaf a Second Chance” with Repeatloaf, Verhoeven Family of Companies is taking a significant step toward a fully circular bakery industry, one that reduces environmental pollution, eases resource strains, and ensures the supply of staple foods in the face of changing global needs.

The Verhoeven Family of Businesses was established in 1968 and specializes in custom-making internal handling and conveying systems for use in a variety of industries, including the baking industry, as well as modifying pre-existing handling and conveying systems.

According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the size of the global bakery processing equipment market was estimated at US$11.4 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach US$18.7 billion by 2026, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7% from 2019 to 2026.

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