Turning Food Waste into Opportunity: Mission Collaborates with GTF Technologies on RENU™ Mill

The USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates that 30 to 40% of the U.S. food supply is wasted each year. For food manufacturers, that loss represents both an environmental challenge and an opportunity to recover value. GTF Technologies helps manufacturers repurpose food waste into valuable byproducts and side streams using the RENU™ Drying & Milling System, an advanced drying and milling process that keeps edible food out of landfills. At the core of this sustainable system is the RENU™ Mill, designed and built in collaboration with Mission Design & Automation. We are proud to partner with GTF Technologies to help bring this technology to life.

About GTF Technologies & Their Mission to Help Companies Adapt Profitable Sustainability Practices

Founded in 2015 by Gary Schuler, GTF Technologies was created to help companies reduce waste, improve the planet, nourish people, and strengthen profitability. Their work centers on transforming excess and underutilized resources into nutritious, shelf-stable materials that can be reused or resold.

GTF’s solution, the RENU™ Drying & Milling System, converts raw materials such as fruits and vegetables into powder using a process that is more efficient and resource-conscious than traditional drying methods. The goal is simple but powerful: help companies adopt sustainability practices that make financial sense.

“The inspiration [for GTF] was that there is so much food waste. One third of all fruits and vegetables and food that get produced never get eaten. Yet we have these incredible needs,” said Gary Schuler, president and founder of GTF Technologies.

Schuler indicated that working with companies to stabilize food that would otherwise go to waste creates what he calls a triple bottom line: the ability to help their customers make or save money, eliminate food waste to have a positive impact on the environment, and help feed people who don’t have food.

RENU™ Mill: How it Works

The RENU™ System uses a balance of controlled pressure, temperature, and high-speed airflow to move conditioned air and raw materials through the milling process. Moisture is rapidly extracted while nutrients are preserved, resulting in high-quality powder.

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The system has many components to it, including a customizable feeding system that can be designed for inline or batch processes, an air treatment system that conditions incoming air to optimize moisture removal, and at the heart of the process: the RENU™ mill.

Developed with Mission Design & Automation, GTF’s RENU™ Mill features a patented impact flash drying process. This approach micronizes materials in a fraction of the time required by more conventional methods such as freeze drying, spray drying, or oven drying. The result is lower energy consumption and improved nutrient retention.

The milling process is completed using an air filter receiver, which separates extracted moisture from the final powder product before prior to final collection.

Learn More About the RENU™ Mill Partnership

At Mission Design & Automation, we value partnerships that push innovation forward. Collaborating with GTF Technologies on the RENU™ Mill reflects that commitment, and we are proud to support systems that help manufacturers operate more sustainably without sacrificing performance or profitability.

“Our experience in working with Mission is they have been great partners to us as we’ve developed the technology,” said Jim Weaver, CEO at GTF Technologies. “What we’re doing is really new to the world, so when it comes to making something that is easy to assemble, easy to clean for our customers, working through potential maintenance issues when you’re developing a project that is designed to work 24/7—it becomes very key that you have a good partner that understands those rigorous criteria. We found Mission to be a great partner in that.”

Head to our YouTube channel to watch the video and learn more about GTF's RENU™ Drying & Milling System.