Do Good Foods, based in New Jersey, has filed for bankruptcy. The company, established by brothers Justin and Matthew Kamine proposed a unique model involving recycling of food waste to be incorporated into layer and broiler diets. In December 2022, Do Good Foods launched Do Good eggs in partnership with Michael Foods. At the time, the company claimed that each dozen eggs produced would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one lb. expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. The intent was to supply Michael Foods, a subsidiary of Post Holdings, with verified carbon-reduced eggs to be marketed in 2023. At the time, Justin Kamine, co-founder and co-CEO of the Company, stated, “The fact is that we can and must solve the biggest environmental problems while fitting it into the existing food system to make a real difference at an incredible scale.”
At the time Mark Westphal, president of Michael Foods, stated, “This partnership gives us the capability to bring our customers to truly sustainable solution without having to compromise on the nutrition, flavor or convenience of our eggs.”
In 2022, Do Good Foods operated a recycling plant capable of producing a claimed 150 tons of animal feed per day. The company had plans to install plants in Selma, NC., Fort Wayne, IN. and Fairless Hills, PA.
The concept of recycling wasted and dated food, with diversion from landfills appears to be beneficial to the environment and was intended as a marketing initiative. The technical and operational problems of incorporating recycled ingredient into feed for broilers and egg producing flocks, represented a challenge that failed to achieve scale of operation, performance parameters and satisfying nutritional specifications of flocks.
Do Good Foods was a recipient of investment capital including $170 million from Nuveen among other promotors. It is evident that optimistic and possibly unrealistic projections were incorporated into the business plan with inexperienced reviewers affiliated to venture capital companies apparently unable to discern problem areas or inconsistencies and to establish that projects conformed to the realities of commercial production, processing and marketing.