Turning Waste Into Nutrition with TJ Galiardi, Co-Founder of Outcast Foods
By: Nexus Pmg
Tags: Vegan, Food, Foodies, Sustainability, Plants

TJ Galiardi is a former NHL forward, playing with the Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, and Calgary Flames following his time at Dartmouth College. As Co-Founder of Outcast Foods, TJ has quickly become one of the young leaders in food and agriculture with his unique outlook on sustainability. Additionally, TJ has been a guest lecturer on food waste at Rice University, a speaker at the Tuck School of Business, and an active angel investor and real estate developer for ten years.

▶ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wGWuhb

▶ Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2U9NHHr

▶ Anchor: https://bit.ly/2U0359w

Episode 156 with TJ Galiardi

Excerpts from a conversation on the Bigger Than Us podcast.

Professional Athlete to Food Waste: Finding Purpose

A little over three and a half years ago, myself and another vegan, Dr. Darren Burke, wanted to start a business together.

And the thing that we kept coming back to was food waste. It seemed to be a massive problem that there were really no solutions. No one was even working on solutions other than some very small niche brands and products.

I started playing hockey when I was four years old. So I played till I was 29, 30 years old. So yeah, I played my whole life but played professionally for just about 10 years.

There are things that I’ve used for my playing career in business. I think most importantly, it’s resilience. It’s understanding that there’s going to be highs and lows and trying to stay even keel. That’s something that’s definitely translated. You can get caught up in business and think, you know, “This meeting right here is a make-or-break for us.” Or “This presentation is going to be the biggest thing for us ever.” But the reality is that there’s most likely always going to be another one. And you just gotta make sure you’re as prepared as possible for everything and put your best foot forward.

We obviously know that the population is growing very fast, and we need to figure out a way to feed everyone. So this idea of putting fruits and vegetables or any type of food that can be eaten and putting it in a landfill — it’s got to end. So I think that’s our mission. And I actually, from the bottom of my heart, believe that we have the ability to completely end it.

Outcast Foods is Saving Some (Not So) Bad Apples

Anytime you say you’re working with waste, I think people start to raise their eyebrows and try to figure out what’s going on. I think the picture that pops up in your mind is moldy fruits and vegetables. But the fact of the matter is the product we’re working with is in mint condition.

You go to Whole Foods, or Kroger, or wherever that grocery store is. And they have a display and a wall full of apples, for instance. And eventually, people are going to buy the ones that look amazing. And the ones that aren’t perfect? They sit there on the shelf, and eventually, they’re called off the shelf, and they end up in a landfill. So we’ve brought this problem on ourselves, but we’re all guilty of it, right? Like I go to the grocery store, still, these days. And I’m picking through apples to find the best one. It’s ridiculous. And I take a step back, and I’m like, “Whoa, what am I doing here?” But it’s going to have to change. I would say at the pre-consumer level. That’s what we’re focused on.

We came up with this idea to partner with a lot of these companies and farms and food processors that were responsible for the waste. And I say that in as nice of a way as I can because once you learn about why they’re wasting the fruits and vegetables and the products — it makes sense for them as a business. So we figured we’d partner with them and come up with our own dehydration technology to give these products a two to three-year shelf life, and then find a home for them as either supplements or ingredients for other companies.

Let’s say we get a truckload of bananas from our grocery partner that are two yellow. Those will show up at our facility. We will do an inspection immediately. And then we have a multi-stage process where the product is brought in, it’s inspected, it’s washed. It’s run through multiple steps of dehydration and multiple technologies. And then depending on what our customer wants, whether it’s banana chips, banana slices, whole banana, or banana powder, we finish it in that way for them to use in their final application.

You could think about whatever fruit or vegetable goes bad the fastest. That’s typically what’s going to be wasted the most. But I think there’s waste in really every stream. So we’re just trying to find as many partners as we can that have that waste and find a way to upcycle it for them.

Plant-Based Benefits

My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, was kind of one of those original vegans. No one knew what even vegan even meant back then. So I think she started to just kind of tell me some little things about it. And I started to experiment and try different things in my diet to help my performance on the ice.

It was still pretty early in the plant-based movement back then. So I think some [teammates] didn’t really understand what I was doing. But for the most part, there was curiosity. I would always find vegan restaurants or restaurants that had some really good vegan options when we were traveling on the road. And a lot of the time, guys would come and experiment with me and see how they felt. And I think it probably planted some seeds in some of them to make us make a shift further on in their careers or to become a little more plant-based. And I still get messages from some of my ex-teammates who say that I inspired them to make a change.

Most importantly, when I was playing hockey, I noticed that I recovered faster. And I think a big reason for that is I was sleeping better. I used to toss and turn in bed. It felt like hours before I would fall asleep. And it was pretty crazy that once I switched to a vegan lifestyle and diet, the second my head hit the pillow, I was asleep. So I was sleeping more. And I think it’s obvious the more you sleep, the more you recover. So that was important for me. And I had more energy throughout the day. So that was number one.

I don’t ever want to be looked at as a pushy vegan who’s shaming people on what they eat. Because I think at the end of the day, it’s your choice what you eat. But you should at least know what took place in order for you to get that food. So I’m always happy to talk about it. And I think it’s important more than ever now, given the state of our climate change and the environment.

Measuring Success and Making Impact

If you’re living in the past and in the rearview, that’s no way to live. So for me, obviously, I had a pretty interesting 10 years playing professional hockey and kind of reached the pinnacle of the sport, in the sense of making it to the NHL. So that was always my dream growing up forever.

And then you know, one day, you get to a point and you realize the passion is gone for the sport and you’ve got everything you could out of it. And you got to figure out something new and reinvent yourself. So for me, it’s been transitioning into business. And now my goal is to really disrupt this notion that food can be wasted, even though it’s perfectly edible. So it’s a constant evolution. And I’m really just trying to live in the present and make a difference now.

If you really want to make an impact on the environment, or the animals, just look at the brand and think, okay, are these guys doing anything out of the ordinary to help out with the environment? Are they buying sustainably sourced ingredients? Are they using compostable packaging? Just little things because every dollar you spend, you’re voting with. So if you want to make an impact, the easiest way to do it is through your purchases.

The Full Transcript

Read the full transcript.