More than 18 million metric tons of food ends up in German bins

Everybody knows that supermarkets can’t really sell a banana or an apple with a dent or a bruise. But what happens to this "ugly" fruit and what are the consequences of our desire for perfect fruit and vegetables?

The numbers are clear. An average German throws more than 80 kilos of food in the bin. However, during the process of producing, storing and packaging the selection is even stricter. Fruit and vegetables have to be almost perfect to make it to the supermarket. That results in more than 18 million metric tons of food waste. Reason enough for Zubin Farahani and Jonas Bieber to look for an economically viable and environmentally friendly solution to this problem. Together the physician and the manager founded DÖRRWERK, which claims to produce the most sustainable snacks in Germany.

The concept is clear, the entrepreneurs from Berlin buy the damaged fruit off farmers and importers and change this waste into a new product, with the curiosity-arousing name FruitPaper (Fruchtpapier). The crispy and wafer-thin dried fruit leather is made from 100% fruit, without additives and dried with hot air. The snack has been a success -within only a few months high-end stores and delicatessens in Germany and Austria started selling the product.

Within a year DÖRRWERK, the two-man start-up in a Berlin basement, became a food-producing company, which can process more than 200 metric tons of rescued fruit per year. The move to Marienpark in Berlin Tempelhof is part of the growth of the company. The new location used to be the city gas company, and now it is more and more a venue for new and creative companies. The entrepreneurs have visited their neighbours for a beer, since they are situated next door to the craft brewery STONE, already famous in the USA. 

In June 2016 Team DÖRRWERK found reinforcement in Philipp Prechtner. He decided, after years of experience in online businesses, to join the sustainable and the tangible food retail business. Now, the three entrepreneurs nibble their FruitPaper while they feverishly develop new snacks in the savoury range. According to DÖRRWERK this year sparks will really fly when their new vegetable chips hit the market. Farahani, Bieber and Prechtner state that their vegetable chips will have it all. Not all the calories, but all the flavour and sustainability.