Is Vegetable Flavoured Ice Cream the New Way to Get Your Vitamins?

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Vegetable-flavoured gelatos starring cauliflower and pumpkin have stirred up heated debates this week at Australia and New Zealand’s largest horticulture conference and trade show, Hort Connections, where innovative businesses used foods that would’ve otherwise been thrown away to address food waste.

Three thousand attendees there sampled two flavours that were a harmonious combination of salty and sweet: cauliflower-vanilla bean and pumpkin-ginger bread.

Research and development corporation Hort Innovation claims the new ice cream is even good for your health, with one serving of vegetables in every two scoops.

“Research shows that 96 percent of the population do not eat the recommended amount of vegetables each day—which is five to six serves,” Hort Innovation CEO Brett Fifield said in a release.

“Ice cream is a popular dessert; why not get a health boost through it?

“Less than one per cent of hard vegetables, such as pumpkin and cauliflower, are consumed as desserts—maybe this is an untapped market.”

(Supplied by Hort Connections)

The ice cream was made from vegetables blended into powders by a new Australian vegetable waste company Nutri-V.

Raquel Said from the grower-led initiative explains that they transformed the pumpkin and cauliflower that would’ve otherwise been lost to the supply chain into a nutritious powder that can be added to a range of meals and drinks and even ice cream.

“Part of growing veggies can involve ending up with tonnes that do not meet retail specification, or there is an oversupply or excess stalks and leaves, yet it is all still perfectly nutritious,” she said.

In Australia, 57 percent of households buy cauliflower, and 69 percent of households buy pumpkins. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

“We upcycle that waste into a sustainable yet delicious solution. This ice cream features vegetables reimagined. It is the future of helping Australians top up their veggie consumption while supporting farmers to reduce waste.”

Wasted food affects the environment, but also our livelihoods, and health studies have found.

In the U.S., food waste was estimated ten years ago to be between 30 to 40 percent of the food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which said that a whopping 133 billion pounds valued at over $160 billion.

In Australia, the amount of food waste is estimated to be over 7.3 million tonnes of food every year.

Clean up Australia says this equates to nearly 300kgs of food per person per year in the country.

Worldwide the annual loss estimated for highly perishable crops, such as fruits and vegetables, exceeds 20 percent, with certain leafy greens and tropical fruits exceeding 40 percent.

The World Trade Organization and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization have increased emphasis on preventing food insecurity by minimizing food loss and waste.

On average, two to three in every 10 vegetable plants planted on-farm are wasted. The amount of food that is lost, or what is left behind in the field, such as leaves and stalks, has not been measured.

Hort Connections is Australia and New Zealand’s premiere horticulture conference. This year it was hosted between June 5 to 7 in Adelaide, South Australia.

Other food highlights from the show included a caramelized onion tart and grapefruit martini made with potato vodka.