Food waste is a hot item nowadays, and more and more parties want to prevent it. “About 35 per cent of all food is wasted, amounting to billions of euros. Per person, the waste amounts to almost 50 kilograms, and the largest share of that happens at home. We think it is important to save products from being wasted,” says Lisa Seebregs from Instock. “At the beginning of November, we had saved products amounting to 209,395 kilograms.”
Saving
Restaurant Instock has been putting food waste on the map since 2014, and has restaurants in Amsterdam and The Hague. Instock is a foundation, established by a group of young people who followed a traineeship at Young Ahold. They had an exceptionally good idea, and their mission was to create awareness and decrease waste. “Products with a short shelf life, or that are dented or slightly damaged, are often ignored by consumers in supermarkets. Instock works with these products daily, and turns them into meals. We want to show people what can still be done with products that are regularly binned. The chefs make quite an effort, they want to surprise every guest with the ‘Daily Harvest.’ Every day, our chefs come up with new recipes using the products that were ‘left over’ that day. The menu is therefore always changing.” The products mostly come from the Albert Heijn supermarkets, which also supports the project financially. “We receive many free items, or for a small contribution. However, we have high staff expenses because the products have to be picked up and processed every day.”
Pieper Bier
“Instock started with a pop-up restaurant and that initiative was an enormous success. By now, a third restaurant is already being opened in Utrecht,” Seebregs explains enthusiastically. She has been working for Instock since the beginning of this year. Besides restaurants, Instock also has a cookbook, Instock Cooking, and they have their own product: Pieper Bier (tater beer), made from saved potatoes. “Product development is also part of our organisation, so the assortment might expand.”