FoodSave scheme saves over 1000 tonnes of food from being wasted each year

Since its launch in London in 2013, FoodSave has worked with 175 food businesses to help them reduce and divert their food waste, for example by donating surplus food to charity and turning by-products into sustainable livestock feed. This has saved 1170 tonnes of food per year from being wasted – the equivalent of 97 Routemaster buses. Over 50 charities and other organisations have felt the benefit, whilst the businesses have collectively made an impressive saving of almost £600,000.

This ground-breaking project was co-ordinated by the Greater London Authority, delivered by lead partners Sustain and the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), and supported by food waste charities Feedback and Plan Zheroes. Together they celebrated the most innovative food businesses involved in the project at an awards ceremony at City Hall on Friday 15 May, where guests enjoyed canapés made using surplus food. 

Winners included Borough Market, celebrated for its work with Plan Zheroes to establish a scheme helping traders to donate surplus food to local charities each week. Food donated through the scheme was used to prepare nourishing meals for hundreds of disadvantaged people living in the area, saving the charities an estimated £10,000 a year in food costs.

Sarah Wheeler from Mental Fight Club, a charity benefiting from the surplus for its weekly pop-up The Dragon Café, said: “Last week yellow courgettes, golden beetroot and cheese and olive bread-sticks arrived as a first encounter for many of our patrons. It’s wonderful for people to be able to try new types of food. Mental ill-health is often accompanied by poor diet and for many who come the food they get from The Dragon Café is their only freshly cooked meal of the week. As a result of this brilliant arrangement, The Dragon Café has halved its ingredient costs and our takings are rising steadily each week.”

Another winner was Kappacasein Dairy, a cheesemaker based in Bermondsey, which now delivers whey to three city farms across East London. FoodSave built on the work of Feedback’s campaign The Pig Idea to enable Kappacasein to register as a feed supplier and divert its whey to livestock feed. William Oglethorpe, cheesemaker at Kappacasein Dairy, said: “FoodSave helped me get through the labyrinth of regulations in order to supply pigs with whey. This has halved the cost of my whey disposal, but something that FoodSave pointed out was that in terms of efficiency of use of food waste, it’s much better to put it through pigs, rather than through a composting or biodigesting system. That makes me feel much better about the waste, because in a sense it’s not waste any more – so that makes me feel good!”

Findings from the project will be made available on Sustain’s website in the summer and the partners involved are currently looking at other ways to share lessons learnt across the UK.

 

NOTES:

1. FoodSave was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and the Mayor of London. FoodSave is supported by London Food Board and is run through the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Sustain.
2. Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. Sustain is a registered charity and represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.
3. The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) is a national, not-for-profit membership organisation providing restaurants with expert sustainability advice through a team of specialist account managers. The SRA helps member restaurants source food more sustainably, manage resources more efficiently and work more closely with their communities.  For more information on the SRA’s work on FoodSave with hospitality businesses, supported by Winnow Solutions, see www.foodsave.org.
4. Feedback has been working hard since 2009 to combat the global food waste scandal.  The organisation’s campaign The Pig Idea calls for livestock to be fed on food ‘waste’ such as whey from dairies and spent grain from breweries as a more sustainable way of producing meat.
5. Plan Zheroes seeks to inspire food businesses to give their surplus food to those who need it, so it need not go to waste. Its online map makes it easy for businesses to identify local charities that can put their surplus food to good use, or vice versa.