By drying surplus vegetables into shelf-stable powders, Nutri V has diverted nearly 350 tonnes of produce from landfill in just three years—the equivalent of 4 million extra servings of vegetables reintroduced into the supply chain.
Challenge
In Australia’s vegetable fields, the harvest doesn’t end when crops are picked. Poor yields, weather damage, grading rejects, trimmings, and surplus leaves often never make it to market. Some are ploughed back into the soil; others go to animal feed or landfill. This waste represents lost nutrition, lost farmer income, and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. While food waste reduction is a growing policy priority, scalable solutions to capture and repurpose vegetables at the farm level are still rare.
Solution
Nutri V was created with a singular mission: to increase vegetable consumption while reducing food waste at scale. Partnering with parent company Fresh Select, the business has developed a circular economy solution that converts surplus vegetables into shelf-stable, nutrient-dense powders. Its proprietary drying process reduces vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, beetroot, spinach, and carrot to less than 10% moisture, locking in nutrition and extending shelf life by over 12 months. Approximately every kilo of powder represents around 20 kilos of fresh vegetables that would otherwise have gone to waste.
Production takes place directly on-farm, reducing carbon emissions from transportation and leveraging Fresh Select’s 600kW solar energy system for manufacturing. This integrated model shifts production from a 75% average yield to a 100% utilisation rate, ensuring that crops once written off as waste are now reintroduced into the food chain.
From October 2022 to October 2024, Nutri V diverted nearly 300 tonnes of vegetables from landfill, equivalent to approximately 4 million extra servings of vegetables reintroduced into the supply chain.
Impact
Nutri V’s innovation reaches consumers and businesses alike. In retail, the Nutri V brand includes seven product lines sold in Coles supermarkets: three vegetable-based snacks and four 75g sachets of vegetable powders in the fresh produce section, designed for home cooks to add nutrition to smoothies, sauces, and baking. In the B2B market, Nutri V supplies bulk powders in 5–10kg bags to partners such as Laurent Bakery, Sonora Foods, and Able Foods, enabling new bakery items, ready meals, and even pet food formulations enriched with vegetables.
The model benefits multiple stakeholders: farmers receive payment for produce that would otherwise be discarded, manufacturers gain a versatile ingredient to boost product nutrition, and consumers have more opportunities to incorporate vegetables into their diets.
By processing waste on-site, the business cuts the carbon footprint associated with transportation and disposal, while the use of solar energy reduces reliance on fossil fuels. Nutri V’s work demonstrates that food waste prevention can be commercially viable, environmentally responsible, and nutritionally impactful.
Future outlook
In the next 12 months, Nutri V plans to expand its regular vegetable lines from 8 to 12, add 4–5 new food manufacturing partners in Australia, and secure 2–3 overseas distribution partners. Longer term, the goal is to replicate the drying solution in other key growing regions, addressing local waste streams and reducing the need to ship surplus across the country. By scaling the model nationally within five years, Nutri V aims to turn more farm waste into accessible nutrition—closing the loop on food waste while boosting vegetable consumption nationwide.
Nutri V is an Australian company pioneering farm-to-powder innovation to combat food waste and improve nutrition. By converting surplus vegetables into shelf-stable, nutrient-rich vegetable powders on the farm, Nutri V has reintroduced 4M servings of vegetables into the supply chain while diverting 350T of produce from landfill. Its solar-powered drying process transforms crops like broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin and beetroot into versatile ingredients for snacks, baking, ready-made meals and pet food. Nutri V’s circular economy model benefits farmers, manufacturers and consumers alike – delivering scalable environmental impact and nutritional value while proving that waste can be a resource, not a liability.
Learn more about Nutri V through their website. To collaborate or connect, reach out directly to our SL25 team.
Connect
