From Trash to Treasure: Innovative Solutions for Food Loss by Sunrise Fresh

Sunrise Fresh, through highly innovative and thoughtful solutions, has created a win-win when it comes to food waste and food loss.

Founded in 2003, Sunrise Fresh is a family owned company located in Linden, California owned and operated by the Samuel family. The fourth generation farm has been in operation since the early 1900s when it began growing carrots, beets, tomatoes, grain and dry beans. In 1954, the family transitioned to orchards, farming peaches, cherries and walnuts. While Sunrise Fresh still maintains the original orchards, the company is now a vertically integrated grower, processor, manufacturer, ingredient provider and branded producer of blueberries, pears, apples and other fruit. Being vertically integrated, the company controls its entire sourcing process from the grower to the packing houses, to its dry yard, trucking and sales.

UN Goals:
3 Good Health and Well-Being
9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
12 Responsible Consumption and Production
13 Climate Action
15 Life on Land
17 Partnerships for the Goals

Sunrise Fresh maintains a value added focus and supplies unsweetened, upcycled, no-added-sugar, no preservative dried fruits. Its mission is to provide the highest quality dried fruits to the world, whether in snack packs, trail mixes, energy bars, chocolate covered cherries or straight from the bag. The company’s production methods and close contacts with growers up and down the West Coast and Pacific Northwest allow it to supply its customers with high-quality fruit all year long.

Sunrise Fresh’s vision is to provide sustainable products that are healthy and better for the consumer, better for the grower, and better for its families. The company’s unique drying and processing methods allow for better tasting, longer lasting and more nutritious dried fruit.

The challenge:
Surplus, Ugly Produce and Waste

Research by the USDA estimates that over the past decade, and average of 30-40% of the food supply is wasted, including nearly half of all fruits and vegetables. This significant level of food waste occurs while approximately 10% of the U.S. population faces some form of food insecurity.

This level of waste also has significant impacts on society:

Wholesome food that could have helped feed families in need is sent to landfills.
Land, water, labor, energy and other inputs are used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, storing, and disposing of discarded food.

Globally, about 14% of food produced is lost after harvesting but before it reaches shops and supermarkets. Research indicates that up to 25% of apples are discarded because they do not meet aesthetic standards. In the last three years approximately 260 million pounds of cherries were either not harvested or thrown away due to minor defects. This means that producers' efforts to meet stringent buyer specifications result in perfectly edible produce being discarded before it even leaves the farm simply due to its appearance.

An open-top trailer filled with colorful fruits, parked beside the road.

Supermarkets and consumers generally favor produce that is uniform in size and free from any blemishes, scars, or imperfections. Consequently, fruits and vegetables that are oddly shaped, discolored, or not within the preferred size range are often rejected before they even reach the supermarket shelves.

Year after year California cherry packhouses keep decreasing and thresholds for premium quality fruit keep going up, meaning that fewer fruits and vegetables are getting to the retailers and, subsequently, to the consumer.

Another contributor to food loss is surplus. Surplus can be caused by varying factors, including increased production, equipment defects, labor shortages, power shortages and blackouts and hazardous product damages that result in an excess of food with no outlet for distribution. While having too much food might seem like a good problem to have, that is not the case when the excess ends up as waste.

Food loss and waste has severe environmental impacts, taking into consideration the inputs it takes to produce the food, such as the use of water and energy and the emission of greenhouse gases—accounting for 11% of global emissions—including methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons, which all contribute to climate change. Decomposing food in landfills also releases nitrogen pollution, leading to algae blooms and dead zones. Reports show that the greenhouse gas emissions from wasted food in the U.S. are equivalent to those from 37 million cars. If the current trend of food loss continues, the environmental consequences will be detrimental.

Sunrise Fresh sought to create a sustainable solution that would allow it to make a profit from a product that would otherwise be thrown away.

The Solution:
From Waste to Profit

In the 1980’s, Sunrise Fresh ran a facility to process maraschino cherries, which served as an outlet for its #2 cherries (fruit that may have marks or bruising, are too small or large or are misshapen [and won’t sell at retail]). In 1996, an increase in Washington cherry production resulted in an increase in #2 cherries. Sunrise Fresh was suddenly faced with the question of what to do with the excess #2 fruit to prevent it from going to waste.

The company began experimenting with other avenues for the surplus of cherries. It experimented with drying cherries and other fruits using large screens, but the idea did not fully take off until 2003. Sunrise Fresh began drying full truckloads of fruits. This innovative solution not only reduced food waste but also provided a sustainable source of income for the company as well as growers.

Workers sorting dried fruits on a green conveyor belt in a food processing plant.

While the original process required the fresh cherries to be pitted, dried, then processed, Sunrise Fresh now uses a unique patented drying process developed by Jim Samuel. The cherries are dried with the stem and pit still attached, then rehydrated for pit removal, then dried a second time to extend shelf life for long-term storage while maintaining most of the fruit’s nutritional value. This allows the company to do mass volume production in a 45-day harvest window to provide the dried fruit year round.

The Takeaway:
Creating a Win-Win for the Company, the Grower and the Planet

In 2023, through their unique drying process, Sunrise Fresh converted 25 million pounds of cherries to viable food that would have gone to the landfill. The solution is beneficial to the grower in that it is a return for produce that would otherwise have been a zero on their bottom line. Fruit that would have been thrown away has turned to profit that helps cover production and harvest costs. It benefits Sunrise Fresh in that the company is able to obtain fruit from the grower at a lower price point, which leaves a larger margin for profit. And the benefit to the planet is immense.

What started out at 40,000 pounds of fruit in 2003 has now grown to 25 million pounds of crop diversion from the landfill. Beyond cherries, Sunrise Fresh also recycled over 1 million tons of apples and blueberries that would become trash.

Says Case Samuel, Vice President of Sales for Sunrise Fresh, “Something I’ve found a true belief in, is that we are making a difference. We’re preventing an extreme amount of food from being thrown away, and we’re bringing a healthier snacking option to people who have never had a fresh cherry but have the ability to eat a dried cherry.”

Sunrise Fresh works with the USDA and Foodbanks to provide snacks that are not only delicious but that are wholesome as well. Since 2020, the dried sweet cherry industry has provided almost 5.5 million pounds of dried cherries to Foodbanks. The company also works to provide healthy snack options in U.S. produce “deserts,” which is part of its drive to get its product in the hands of people who don’t know they have the ability to buy this type of product or don’t know what it is.

“Our fruits are priced correctly to where an underprivileged family or someone who doesn’t have the ability to buy fresh produce for their kids has the ability to buy our dried fruits,” says Samuel.

In Sunrise Fresh’s commitment to preventing food waste in 2025, the company’s goal is to launch a new dried strawberry product, utilizing its unique drying process to save 3 – 5 million pounds of fresh strawberries.

Sunrise Fresh’s journey demonstrates how necessity can drive innovation. The surplus of #2 fruits and the company’s dedication to the environment and sustainable solutions led to the exploration of upcycling as a viable solution. Upcycling surplus fruits and vegetables not only addresses food waste but also creates a successful and sustainable business model.

From Trash to Treasure: Innovative Solutions for Food Loss

A Sunrise Fresh Sustainability
Case Study

The challenge:
Surplus, Ugly Produce and Waste

The Solution:
From Waste to Profit

The Takeaway:
Creating a Win-Win for the Company, the Grower and the Planet

Related Resources

From Trash to Treasure: Innovative Solutions for Food Loss

A Sunrise Fresh SustainabilityCase Study

The challenge:Surplus, Ugly Produce and Waste

The Solution: From Waste to Profit

The Takeaway: Creating a Win-Win for the Company, the Grower and the Planet

Related Resources

A Sunrise Fresh Sustainability
Case Study

The challenge:
Surplus, Ugly Produce and Waste

The Solution:
From Waste to Profit

The Takeaway:
Creating a Win-Win for the Company, the Grower and the Planet