One of the largest sources of food waste in New Zealand is being given a second life thanks to Kiwi start-up, Rescued, and its new range of upcycled products now available at selected Countdown stores.
Rescued, which is part of Countdown’s small supplier accelerator Kete, is taking leftover bread rescued from a number of Countdown bakeries and turning it into easy-to-make vanilla, chocolate, lemon & gin botanicals, and savoury baking mixes with customers encouraged to rescue their own fruit or vegetables and add them to the mix. Plain and rescued herb breadcrumbs, made from real bread, give customers another pantry staple that’s helping prevent food waste. The upcycled products are now available to purchase in a number of Auckland Countdown stores.
Owner and founder of Rescued, Diane Stanbra, says that it’s a massive milestone to be on the shelf in Countdown stores and turning what would otherwise be wasted food into delicious new products.
“When we first began our journey to tackle food waste in Aotearoa through upcycling, one of our biggest goals was to be selling our products in the same place we’re rescuing from – and we’ve done it!
“The support we’ve been given over the last eight months has been great, and it’s only up from here. There are so many opportunities for reducing food waste to landfill through upcycling, and we’re really looking forward to what’s ahead.”
Steve Mills, Countdown’s commercial director of packaged goods says that Countdown is very excited to have Rescued products on-shelf and to be working with them to find circular solutions to food waste.
“At Countdown our priority is to avoid creating food waste in the first place by making sure we’re not ordering or producing more than we need, but the nature of fresh food and serving over three million customers a week means that some level of waste is inevitable.”
“To make sure as little as possible is ending up in landfill, we have a policy of donating food that’s still fit for consumption but can’t be sold – and we work with over 25 food rescue partners to make this happen. However, we do still have some food that’s currently ending up as animal feed or unfortunately going to landfill – especially with short shelf-life products like bread that our food rescue partners struggle to find enough outlets for. That’s where Rescued has come in!”
“We’ve worked really closely with Diane and the rest of the team at Rescued to find sustainable, circular solutions to these challenges and it’s amazing to finally have a new, delicious answer on shelf for customers!”
Countdown’s Kete programme is currently supporting five small and diverse businesses to achieve their own version of success through a 12 month programme. Each business chosen to be part of Kete is receiving a package worth over $250,000 including a $20,000 cash grant, customer marketing support, access to Countdown customer insights, product development and manufacturing support, and mentorship from experts across Countdown.
