Food waste in Canada is a big problem. A huge one actually. Did you know that we waste $31 billion in food each year? That’s almost 40% of all food produced. Even more shockingly, 47% of food waste comes from homes – not from hotel and restaurant chains, or corporations as you might think. So while we might blame this problem on big companies, most of it comes right back to the kitchen.

Okay okay, now that the depressing stats are out of the way, what can we do about this issue? Clearly, it’s something we can all work together on. Here at Be Fresh, low food waste is important to us. Here’s how we try to keep our food footprint low.

How We Reduce Our Food Waste.

Donations.

• • The Foodstash Foundation. They pick up any day-old foods that typically would head to the landfill and deliver them to different charities around Vancouver. Read more on this here.
  • Union Gospel Mission. Similar to Foodstash, any day-old (but still edible!) food goes to those in need. The UGM serves 3 nutritious meals a day with many foods coming from us and other local Vancouver producers. Read more on this here. 

Our Products.

• Have you tried our Pea-Nomenal Dip yet? If you have, you’ll know it’s pretty darn tasty. Not only that, it’s made with our leftover almond pulp from our in-house almond milk. (We make a lotta milk, which means there’s a lotta pulp. Perfect for our tasty dips!) Other works in progress for our almond pulp include granola, vegan cheese, and crackers.

Above. Our Pea-nomenal Dip on the left, and our other popular dips on the right.

• Some other low-waste products we make are:
  • Our Pea-Nomenal Protein Wrap. Yes, using our Pea-Nomenal Dip. It’s low-waste and also SO GOOD.
  • Broth bar. Bone broth is great because it uses up allll of the animal, not just the meat. Normally the bones would get tossed out, but our broth turns those into a tasty, comforting beverage.
  • Chaga foam. You know the indescribably delectable foam that goes on top of our broth lattes? Well that’s made from aquafaba, the “water” from canned chickpeas, which conveniently turns into a thick foam when blended. We use the chickpeas for our in-house hummus and use the water for the foam. No waste there.
  • Soups. Some remaining juice pulp also goes into our soups! These soups are always changing, but the most notable one is our Thai Carrot.
  • Zero-waste ketchup. This is a work in progress but should be in place come summertime. There are tons of too-ripe, imperfect tomatoes that we can’t sell, so those will become our house ketchup. Stay tuned!

These are just some of the ways we reduce our food footprint, but we always strive to do better. We’ll keep you updated on any creative new projects. In the meantime, #letsnotwaste: how do YOU reduce your food waste?