A south Lincolnshire apple and pear grower and importer is seeing its waste reduced thanks to an innovative new project.
Waste fruit that would normally go to composting is being sent instead to small enterprises that are putting it to good use.
In a novel project orchestrated by Linda McWatt, senior lecturer in new product development at The National Centre for Food Manufacturing at the University of Lincoln Holbeach Campus, the major fruit firm is collaborating with small and medium-sized businesses that can add value to the waste product.
Phil Ransome, operations director of Empire World Trade at Pinchbeck, says the company is delighted it has been able to supply the enterprises involved in the project.
He said the project could have a commercial benefit to the company as well as being good from an environmental point of view.
The university campus has a history of finding a use for what is considered waste food. Two or three years ago the department made cauliflower soup using parts of the vegetable that wouldn’t otherwise be used.
Linda says the success of that – it was highlighted on BBC2’s Great British Food Revival – prompted her to think about other food waste that could have alternative uses.
Each week two-and-a-half tonnes of Empire World Trade’s waste apples go to a juice and cider maker and about 10,000 apples and pears are used by producers of jams and jellies.