Yorkshire café serves dishes entirely from local food waste

08 April 2014 by
Yorkshire café serves dishes entirely from local food waste

A café whose food is created using entirely "waste" produce from restaurants and supermarkets has opened in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

according to the Daily Mail.

Donations used so far include caviar, salmon, truffles, cheeses, spices, mixed vegetables and cuts of meat.

Since the café opened, six co-directors have come on board, plus a group of around 50 volunteers, who help run the site and cook the meals. It serves up to 30 covers a day for breakfast and lunch so far, and operates a food bank from the venue. The group is also looking to expand and cater for outside events in future.

Customers can also pay what they choose for the meal they have, according to how much they feel able to give.

Smith has said he believes the café has so far saved over a tonne of food that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Co-director Connor Walsh told the Daily Mail: "We want to make use of all this food that is being needlessly wasted over society. We want to provide healthy meals for people who are food insecure. Using food collected that basically gets sent to landfill."

The issue of food waste has risen up the agenda in recent months and weeks. Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers has co-run a campaign calling for a re-introduction of using waste in pig feed, while various figures have suggested anaerobic digestion as the best policy.

Just yesterday, a House of Lords European Union Committee released a report on EU-wide food waste. It found that 90 million tonnes were wasted in the UK alone - estimated as the equivalent of £5b a year.

The committee's chair, Baroness Scott, condemned the current food waste policies as "fragmented" and "morally repugnant", with the report recommending that the new European Commission enact a five-year food waste strategy within its first six months.

House of Lords demands urgent action on 90 million tonnes EU food waste >>

UK counties favour anaerobic digestion for commercial food waste disposal >>

Mayor of London launches scheme to help small businesses cut food waste >>

Pig feed idea is total swill >>

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking