PLUS BRAND PARTNERS WITH REFED AS FOOD WASTE SOLUTION PROVIDER

As a proud Top-Tier Sponsor, Plus Brand is set to take a prominent role as an official presenter and exhibitor at the highly anticipated 2024 Food Waste Solutions Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. This prestigious event serves as a key platform for industry leaders, government officials, professionals, and innovators to converge and explore cutting-edge services, products, and technologies aimed at advancing consumable goods waste reduction initiatives. 

As part of the Showcase, Plus Brand will prominently display Agua Plus and its innovative All-Scratch!® Technology; a leading CPG solution that addresses the perennial issue of product and packaging waste due to confusion. This groundbreaking technology allows users to simply scratch their name, initials, an image, or any other identifying mark directly onto any consumer packaged goods that utilize the technology, thus eliminating confusion and reducing waste. All-Scratch!® is engineered to be water-resistant, ice-proof, condensation-proof, sun-resistant, heat-resistant and resistant to mild rubbing, ensuring that the identifying mark on the bottle or package remains intact and visible. 

“We are immensely grateful to Plus Brand Industries for their generous support as a top-level sponsor of the 2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit,” said Jackie Suggitt, Director of Capital, Innovation, and Engagement at ReFED. “The ReFED Summit is the largest gathering of the food waste movement, bringing together leaders from across our food system to address one of our planet’s most pressing challenges – food waste. As both a Title Sponsor and a Scholarship Sponsor, Plus Brand Industries is helping us create a vital space for information-sharing and collaboration, ensuring that the Summit and food waste movement reflect a diverse range of voices and perspectives. We’re excited to partner with forward-thinking companies that are working to accelerate the adoption of food waste solutions.” 

The 2024 Food Waste Solutions Summit offers an invaluable opportunity for Plus Brand to engage with a community of professionals actively seeking innovative approaches to consumable goods waste reduction. The Company is poised to contribute significantly to the Summit’s success and reinforce its position as a leader in sustainable and impactful solutions, one scratch at a time! All participants at the event will have the opportunity to stay hydrated with Agua Plus alkaline water, which will be handed out at the Plus Brand booth, in order to demonstrate the functional use of All-Scratch!® technology. 

Chad Willis, Founder and CEO of Plus Brand, had the following to add, “This partnership with ReFED is an exciting broad acknowledgment of the value in the solution offered by All-Scratch!® technology. Not only is our alkaline water brand Agua Plus the only water company to feature this ReFED recognized solution, but Plus Brand is also the only Company to receive the title of Solution Provider in the category of waste caused by confusion. With exciting new federal strategies soon to be released in 2024 as a joint effort between the EPA, USDA and FDA, including a national consumer education campaign centered around food waste reduction, Plus Brand is well positioned to help spearhead the use of smart packaging technologies to bring about major change. With the federal government getting behind programs like this to drive change, we expect to see many new policies come about that incentivize and encourage the use of innovative preventive solutions like All-Scratch!®. That is great news for all consumers,  including the 86% of American households who recognize the need to intensify efforts to reduce food and beverage waste.”

ReFED stands as a leading force in the food waste movement, spearheading efforts to curtail food loss and waste on a national and international scale. The current state of the food system is marked by radical inefficiency, as highlighted by data from ReFED’s website. In 2022, the United States witnessed the generation of a staggering 88.7 million tons of surplus food, constituting a significant 38% of the total food supply that year, which amounted to 235 million tons. Unfortunately, the majority of this surplus food meets a disheartening fate, ending up as food waste in landfills, incineration facilities, down the drain, or simply left to rot in the fields. ReFED estimates that a shocking 33% of all food in the U.S. ends up in these destinations, equivalent to 145 billion meals’ worth. 

This alarming situation is not confined to the U.S. alone; globally, food waste has emerged as an urgent issue demanding immediate attention. Recognizing the severity of the problem, entities such as the United Nations, the U.S Government, the European Parliament, and various global business coalitions have set ambitious goals to slash consumable goods loss and waste by half before 2030. Astonishingly, 1 in 10 Americans face food insecurity, highlighting the paradoxical nature of surplus alongside pressing hunger issues. In 2022 alone, surplus food inflicted a staggering cost of $473 billion on the United States, with a substantial 90% ($430 billion) attributed directly to food waste. A mere 7.6% of this surplus food was recycled, and only 1.9% was donated. 

Plus Brand holds the key to a sustainable solution as it relates to the massive amount of that waste that is caused by confusion. There are limitless applications for our groundbreaking All-Scratch!® Technology and they’re not just reserved for Agua Plus. This one-of-a-kind technology can be licensed for use and printed on virtually every major CPG packaging substrate, showcasing its exceptional versatility! With All-Scratch!® and the ability to scratch a  name, date or any identifying mark directly onto a product, the average consumer is provided with a fun and sustainable solution to eliminate any confusion. This innovative approach not only simplifies the process but also significantly reduces product waste in a straight-forward and effective manner. The Company is excited to share its innovative solution with other forward-thinking industry and government leaders. 

If you are a retailer looking to be serviced by a DSD distributor that offers Agua Plus please feel free to reach out to info@plusbrand.com in order to be connected with one in your region. Plus Brand is committed to supporting wholesale customers with localized marketing and brand awareness campaigns to build demand within the regions served.