Rubies founder, Jenny, started reading about the problem of food waste after
seeing the amount of discarded produce at fruit & veg markets across London.
Beautiful mangoes, cranberries & tomatoes... all headed for landfill, often because
they simply don’t look right.
This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of food worldwide every year.
If we reduced this amount by just 1/4, there would be enough food to feed everybody
on the planet.
In developing countries there are high levels of unintentional wastage,
often due to poor equipment, transportation and infastructure.
In wealthy countries, high levels of food waste are caused by food being discarded by
consumers who have bought too much or by retailers because the produce doesn’t meet
aesthetic requirements.
7.2 million tons of food 7 drink are thrown away each year, costing the ave age household
approximately £60 per month. If we stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the benefit
to the planet would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road
The scale of the problem of food waste got Jenny thinking about what
could be done with all this surplus produce. Surely there was a way of
creating a first-class product using excess produce?
Chutneys, jams & preserves sprang to mind
Armed with some family recipes and a car-bootful of rescued fruit & veg
from the New Covent Garden market, the experimentation in the ktichen
began! With partner in crime, Alicia, joining the team, it wasn’t long before...
We now have a range of award-winning relishes, ketchups and mayos stocked in supermarkets and delis across the UK. All our products are made sustainably, from surplus ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. We call them our Condiments with a Conscience.
