Oregon’s food and beverage industry is a major economic driver, but it faces growing challenges tied to efficiency, sustainability and coordination across the supply chain.
By aligning research with industry needs and building partnerships across sectors, Oregon State supports innovation that can lower costs, reduce environmental impacts and create new economic opportunities.
Food loss and waste remain among the most significant issues. In the United States, food waste costs an estimated $218 billion annually, accounts for nearly a quarter of landfill material and is a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Losses occur at every stage of the supply chain — from production to processing to retail and consumption — and are often driven by fragmented systems, limited data, infrastructure gaps and difficulty aligning public and private efforts.
In Oregon, these challenges are compounded by limited opportunities for industry, researchers and partners to work together across sectors. Without that coordination, it is difficult to identify shared priorities, develop scalable solutions or compete for large research investments.
To address these gaps, Oregon State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology in the College of Agricultural Sciences launched an Industry Research Forum to bring together companies, researchers and partners.
The October 2025 forum, hosted at the OSU Food Innovation Center in Portland, focused on identifying where loss and waste occur across supply chains, including byproducts, energy use and packaging. The Food Innovation Center, which opened in 1999 as one of the nation’s first urban agricultural experiment stations, offers a range of services to assist food and beverage companies.
Sixty participants attended, representing major Oregon companies such as Bob’s Red Mill, Pacific Seafood, Tillamook, Boardman Foods, Oregon Potato Company and Fort George Brewing, along with associations, commodity commissions, economic development groups and post-consumer waste organizations.
OSU faculty and leadership also participated, creating a setting for direct dialogue between researchers and industry.
The program combined expert presentations with small-group discussions, allowing participants to identify common challenges, share best practices and highlight priority areas for future research.
Collaboration drives research and funding
Forum input was used to inform research proposals aligned with industry needs.
As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $4 million across 12 grant proposals to Food Science and Technology faculty, supporting work on byproduct utilization and sustainable processing.
At the same time, OSU faculty organized a transdisciplinary team spanning multiple colleges to pursue a $10 million USDA Strengthening Agricultural Systems (USDA-SAS) grant focused on reducing loss and improving efficiency across fiber-rich crops supply chains —such as onions, potatoes, hops, wine grapes and tree fruits — from farm through manufacturing systems.
The proposed project centers on converting these agricultural byproducts into higher value uses, creating new revenue streams while reducing waste and environmental impacts, particularly in Oregon’s rural communities.
Although the 2024 proposal was not funded, it received a high-priority ranking and was invited for resubmission. The refined proposal was submitted to USDA SAS in March 2026 and ongoing collaboration with partners in key locations including the Port of Morrow, Hood River and the Willamette Valley.
This work has also helped position OSU as a key partner in emerging industrial symbiosis efforts in Oregon, where industries coordinate to reuse materials, reduce waste and improve efficiency. The Oregon Legislature approved Oregon House Bill 4086 in March, providing $900,000 for to expand industrial symbiosis pilot locations and provide technical assistance for that work.
Public value
This work helps Oregon’s food and beverage industry reduce loss, improve efficiency and compete for major research funding to enable coordinated public-private partnership.
By aligning research with industry needs and building partnerships across sectors, Oregon State supports innovation that can lower costs, reduce environmental impacts and create new economic opportunities.
These efforts increase the return on public investment by attracting external funding, supporting business growth and improving the long-term sustainability of a major state industry.
