雅思阅读 67: The Food You Throw Away Becomes Dinner（你丢弃的食物变成了晚餐）

改编自 KAUST / Frontiers in Nutrition（2025年）。雅思阅读 Section 3 难度，约 1050 词。 素材来源：https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/turning-spoiled-food-waste-into-commercial-products

Reading Passage

A. The world throws away an astonishing amount of what it grows. Roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted somewhere between field and fork — spoiled on a farm, discarded in a factory, left unsold in a shop, or scraped off a plate. Until recently, most of this surplus ended either in landfill, where it releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide, or in the mouths of animals. A fast-growing industry now argues for a third, more ambitious option: take the material that would otherwise be thrown away, process it, and sell it again as food. The term is "upcycling", and it differs from ordinary recycling because it aims to lift a discarded by-product into something of higher value — fibre into flour, brewers' grain into protein, spoiled dairy into a commercial ingredient. Ordinary recycling merely returns material to a lower, simpler use; upcycling tries to climb the ladder instead, turning what was waste into something shoppers will actively choose. The global market for food-waste upcycling was valued at roughly 62 billion dollars in 2025 and is projected to more than double within a decade, a sign that the idea has moved from environmental enthusiasm to serious business. Investors, once sceptical that "leftovers" could ever be profitable, now see a market where demand from eco-conscious buyers meets a supply that is, literally, free.

B. The science behind it is more precise than it sounds. Fruit and vegetable processing leaves behind skins, peels and pulp that are often richer in fibre, antioxidants and vitamins than the flesh itself, because plants pack their protective chemicals into their outer layers. New extraction methods — gentle, low-temperature processes that do not destroy the nutrients — can isolate these compounds and turn them into prebiotics, natural colourings and protein-rich powders. At the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, researchers launched a pilot in 2025 to show that spoiled milk and out-of-date fruit juices, which a dairy plant would normally flush away, could be converted into valuable products. The work matters because countries such as Saudi Arabia have set themselves demanding targets — to divert 90 percent of waste from landfill by 2040 — and upcycling offers a route that pays its own way, rather than merely taxing waste.

C. The economics are what make the sector take off. Traditional food waste recycling mostly meant composting or feeding animals, both of which earn little. Upcycling instead sells back into the food chain itself: a fibre supplement, a protein bar, a natural preservative. The market data shows animal feed still captures the largest single share of the value, around a third, but the fastest growth is in ingredients for human food, where consumers increasingly reward a product that carries a "saved from waste" story. Supermarkets, eager to appear sustainable, have begun to stock such lines, sometimes at a premium over conventional equivalents. Fermentation technology can push further still, turning organic residues into medium-chain fatty acids — specialty chemicals currently derived from coconut and palm oil, a supply chain tangled with deforestation and price swings. Making them instead from waste closes a loop that previously demanded clearing tropical forest. For manufacturers, the appeal is double: a cheaper raw material and a marketing claim that younger buyers find genuinely persuasive. A bottle of oil made from spent coffee grounds, or a flour pressed from apple pomace, sells as much on its story as on its taste, and retailers have proved willing to shelf such products next to their conventional rivals.

D. Yet the upcycling boom has critics who question whether it is as green as it sounds. The first objection is that it may reduce the pressure to waste less in the first place. If discarding food becomes profitable, runs the argument, companies may have less incentive to design products that simply do not spoil. The second is that processing waste into a new ingredient still consumes energy and water; a flavour extract shipped across the world may leave a footprint that outweighs the benefit. Third, consumers are wary. The phrase "made from food waste" can trigger disgust — an instinct that what was on its way out should not come back as a snack — and regulators must reassure buyers that upcycled ingredients meet the same safety standards as anything else on the shelf. Whether upcycling genuinely cuts emissions, or merely launders waste into a more marketable form, depends on careful measurement of the whole chain, not on the appeal of the logo. A product may travel the length of a continent before it reaches the shelf, and that journey can quietly cancel the green credentials the brand was built on.

E. The balance of evidence, though, suggests the sector is here to stay, provided it is honest about what it achieves. The most successful operations tend not to sell "leftovers" but to build products whose quality stands on its own: a protein flour whose origin story is a footnote, not the headline. They also pair upcycling with genuinely less waste at source, so that the two reinforce rather than compete. As processing volumes rise, the technology improves and costs fall, the distinction between "waste" and "raw material" may simply disappear. In a food system that already grows more than it can eat, the most radical idea of all is that a by-product might be worth more than the main product. Whether that proves to be a durable business model or a temporary marketing fashion will depend on whether the products taste good enough, and measure clean enough, to earn their place on the shelf without apology. If upcycled ingredients can stand on their own merits rather than on their story, the waste stream of one decade may quietly become the grocery list of the next.

Questions 1-4

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B, C, D and E from the list of headings below.

List of Headings i. How waste becomes valuable ingredients ii. The scale of global food waste iii. Why upcycling makes commercial sense iv. Objections and consumer doubts v. The future of a line between waste and raw material vi. Why composting is superior vii. The cost of palm oil in stores

1. Paragraph B: ____
2. Paragraph C: ____
3. Paragraph D: ____
4. Paragraph E: ____

Questions 5-8

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

5. How is upcycling different from ordinary recycling? A. It burns waste for energy. B. It turns a discarded by-product into something of higher value. C. It only feeds waste to animals. D. It sends waste to landfill.

6. Why are fruit peels and skins worth recovering? A. They are cheaper to harvest than the flesh. B. They often contain more fibre and antioxidants than the flesh. C. They taste better than the fruit itself. D. They are already sold as luxury food.

7. According to paragraph C, why do manufacturers like upcycling? A. It removes the need for any safety testing. B. It offers a cheaper raw material plus a popular marketing claim. C. It eliminates all energy use. D. It replaces all coconut oil.

8. What concern do critics raise about upcycling? A. It might reduce the incentive to waste less in the first place. B. It produces more methane than landfill. C. It cannot be sold to humans. D. It is illegal in most countries.

Questions 9-13

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer?

Write:

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

9. About one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted between field and fork.
10. Saudi Arabia aims to divert 90 percent of waste from landfill by 2040.
11. Animal feed currently accounts for the largest single share of the upcycling market.
12. Consumers uniformly love the idea of food made from waste.
13. Most upcycled food products are exported from Asia to North America.

Questions 14-15

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Unlike composting or animal feed, upcycling sells discarded material back into the food (14) ________ as a higher-value ingredient, though critics warn that profitable waste may weaken the drive to waste (15) ________ at source.

答案与解析

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