“1 Snack=1 Act”
“Crunchy red apples,” “juicy round tomatoes,” “perfect carrots.” Don’t we all love fruits and vegetables that look great? But just as life itself, food is not always perfect. That does not make these fruits and vegetables any less acceptable to be a part of our curries and sauces. Food wastage from prepared food is an issue in itself, and I wrote about it when I looked at the amazing work the Robin Hood Army was doing. But food gets wasted even before it reaches this stage, simply because it does not fit our expectations in terms of appearance.
A third of all the food that is produced is wasted. “With the water, fertilizer, energy and other resources used to grow crops that never make it to the table, food waste carries an environmental price.” – writes Beth Gardiner in her New York Times Article “Food Industry Goes Beyond Looks to Fight Waste“. “Often, the cosmetically challenged fruits and veggies are hardly distinguishable from ordinary ones — an orange with a bumpy scar on it, or a potato that is slightly smaller than its peers.” Gardiner explains. A visual analysis of this impact is seen in the video below, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCVrkcaH6Q
Food Ventures have already stepped up to this challenge of minimizing food waste and making people aware of the issue at hand. It’s not just startups. Recently, Walmart announced that it would be selling a brand of apples that had been slightly damaged on the exterior due to weather conditions. This brand is aptly named “I’m perfect”.
I am really excited to write about one such venture here on TYT all the way from the United Kingdom. Meet Snact– a venture that makes “snacks from surplus produce. That’s produce that would otherwise be thrown away for being too big, too small, too ugly, or simply too abundant.” Snact makes fruit jerky giving people a healthy snacking option while contributing to a greater cause. Over email correspondence, I asked Snact‘s co-founder Ilana Taub about the venture and her thoughts on the issue of food wastage. This is what she had to say.
About The Founders
Snact was founded in September 2013 by Ilana Taub and Michael Minch-Dixon. “We have been friends for a long time – we went to school together. We both studied MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College, just in different years. Michael has also previously worked in renewable energy, and I in finance and sustainability. So business and sustainability has been the name of the game for a while!”
The Snact Act
“We were sitting together at an Imperial alumni event and got talking about wanting to start a business. We quickly realised we shared an interest in food and sustainability and that was the beginning of Snact!”
What followed was a lot of peeling and chopping of fruits, talking to producers, wholesale markets and making lots of fruit jerky. In fact, at the beginning of Snact, Ilana and Michael managed it all by themselves. Talking about the challenges with setting up their venture, Ilana says it has been a “steep learning curve. At first, we just got going by doing everything we wanted to do on a very small scale. We would go to wholesale markets to source surplus produce, then make snacks in a rented kitchen, and sell them ourselves at events and markets. That allowed us to figure out each step of the way, how to make it happen on a bigger scale and develop a product that our customers liked.” Snact now operates at a much larger scale, as their website states- “Gone are the days when we chopped each fruit by hand… We now save fruit by the tonne (rather than by the kilo) and our dehydrator is so big that you could get lost in it.”
Fruit Jerky
“The recipe for fruit jerky is simple: we blend whole fresh fruit into a smoothie and dry it into strips – out comes a deliciously sustainable and healthy snack! Good fruit jerky needs good flavors, not good looks, so we source unwanted ugly fruit directly from British farmers. By making our fruit jerky from surplus produce we are actively reducing the amount of food that will go to waste. So every time you snack on it, you are making a positive act towards a greener and fairer food system!”
Snact‘s products are available in three flavors – “Apple & Raspberry,” “Apple & Mango”, and “Apple Blueberry & Banana”. Their conscientious efforts on being sustainable are not just restricted to their products, but also they way they package their products. Snact products are packaged in 100% compostable packaging, which at the end of 24 weeks decomposes completely.
Consumer Response
Being a relatively new concept, I was interested to know if people were reluctant to try their products initially. Ilana shares that on the contrary, consumer response has been great right from the start. “We’ve had a great response to our product from day one, so we can’t say we’ve seen much reluctance. With food waste gaining more profile as an issue people are a lot more aware that it’s not food that’s picked up from bins, but instead perfectly good produce that gets wasted because of the way the food system works. Once that’s cleared up, it’s really a no brainer – I don’t think we’ve ever come across anyone who thought wasting edible food was a good thing!”
On the issue of food wastage and plans with Snact ahead!
“There’s definitely been a lot more happening about food waste and related issues. The popularity of products made from surplus like Toast Ale Beer or Rubies in the Rubble chutneys shows that people care more and more about provenance and the environmental and ethical credentials of the brands they support. Initiatives like The Real Junk Food Project’s pay as you feel surplus cafes or community fridges like People’s Fridge in Brixton prove that lots can be done on a local level, and together these projects have an even bigger impact. Great work is being done to raise the awareness in the media by campaigns like Hugh’s War on Waste on BBC or the Evening Standard’s #FoodforLondon.”
Snact is working on bringing more fruit jerky flavors thereby targeting more of the fruit surplus. “It’s been a fascinating process and we can’t wait to share the fruit (and vegetables!) of our labour with you soon :)”
To know more about Snact visit their website and their Facebook Page. To learn more about food wastage and Snactivism do read the information provided here.
All Images Courtesy of Snact