One Man’s Treasure: How Dockside Pet Products is Repurposing Unsold Food

At a discount, souper Seconds is helping Bay Area chefs find produce seconds, which they plan to chop, dice, and cook to perfection. As we’ve in recent weeks documented, food waste is a billion-dollar marketplace and making sure this ugly food is eaten is just one way to address the $200 billion-a-year food waste problem.

But so far, shareholders have been hesitant to back food waste-focused technologies, with only $93 million in backing reported in 2015—less than 2% of total agtech funding that year, according to AgFunder . Now, a Nova Scotia-based firm is finding a new use for those perfectly edible and equally nutritious produce seconds: feeding fido.

Dane Creek Capital , an backing firm focused on the pet marketplace, of late introduced Dockside Pet Products, a new pet food business targeting North America. Sixty thousand gallons of water per acre is used in growing cauliflower, for example.” Considering that 40% of food produced in Canada and the United States is wasted each year, per to the National Resource Defense Council, using it to create locally sourced and nutritionally-rich pet food products makes sense. Its location in Nova Scotia’s fertile Annapolis Valley also gives it plenty of options for outcome a consistent supply of produce and seafood seconds.

In addition to recapturing this would-be food waste, the company is also incorporating a relatively new type of protein; insects. Dane Creek Capital of late bought a 48 percent interest in Midgard Insect Farm, a Halifax producer of insect-based powder for the pet food trade. As part of the new partnership with Dockside, the duo will create a 1,500 square foot work facility where Midgard can work on improving insect-based protein for pets.

For now, the name is targeting Canada with plans to widen into the US. They’re as well considering India due to its large population—1.5 billion—and a growing middle class that’s increasingly owning dogs as pets, states Warren. It gives us a chance to explain that some of these produce and seafood seconds are actually nutritionally superior.” Cauliflower provides a good example.

This compound has been associated with multiple health benefits , that said, including preventing eye disorders. Improving brain function. “The more anthocyanin it has, the better it actually is for the pet nutritionally,” explains Warren. “That hue actually disqualifies it from making it onto store shelves as we are conditioned to pick up white cauliflower. Social media will allow us to point out the silliness of the purchasing habits of buyers. How we are manipulated into doing stupid things when we acquire food.” This is relatively easy compared to marketing in the past, he notes, with social media’s ability to instantly send a message on a more widespread basis and a much lower rate.

The new venture with Midgard and Perennia is just a sampling of the partnerships to come, explains Warren. “You’ll see us doing deals with very big names,” forecasts Warren. “The plan is to make Nova Scotia the center of work regarding how to use rescued fresh food and sustainable products in the pet sector. We intend to bring in sizeable partners to assist in that.” In a recent statement, Dane Creek Capital unveiled that it was looking to partner with new pet sector businesses seeking fresh sources of financing and management support.

The FDA has made substantial strides implementing the new Food Safety Modernization Act, which applies to both human food and pet food. Not every state recognizes insects as a protein, either. “Our plan and expectation is that more states will start recognizing cricket protein for pet food and meal mix,” he says. “It’s just a matter of time.” Warren seems like the right person to man Dockside’s helm. He is the founder and former president and CEO of Pethealth, which he formed in 1998.

Combined with the business’s equally experienced CFO, Gary Tennison, the duo has over 30 years of experience in the pet food trade.