Prevent food waste and prove that converting by-products of industry food production can result in tasty, healthy and innovative products.
88 million tones of food are wasted annually in the EU with associated costs of 143 billion euros. In the entire value chain from farm to fork in Denmark, around 700,000 tons of food are wasted annually.
The problem of food waste and loss can be minimized by reusing by-products of industrial production.
Social Foodies, a Denmark-based company has 7 storefronts, the majority of which are placed in Copenhagen. Social Foodies offers a wide range of sweet goods, such as chocolate, cookies, fudges, muesli, coffee and many others. Their mission is to combat inequality in global food systems by providing high quality products and focusing on fair labor of smallholders in Africa.
One, current raw materials in their interest is Cyperus esculentus, also called chufa or tiger nut. It is a crop cultivated for its edible tubers for centuries. Chufa is high in fibre, proteins, and natural sugars and often the juice of chufa is extracted for its sweet and milky taste.
The raw chufa comes from the Tigernuts Fair Project in Niger established to create good job opportunities for communities in the rural area in the region of Tamou Head. The project creates jobs for small-scale farmers who produce and harvest the chufa and for community members working in the local chufa processing facility. During the harvest season, the project employs over 300 people in the field and numerouswomen in the processing plant. The project amplifies the number of community members employed through its commitment to using traditional harvesting and processing techniques. The project commits to paying fair wages and negotiates directly with community members.
Social Foodies successfully used the juice in ice cream production, but the remaining chufa pulp left after the operation is an under-utilized by-product.
The chufa pulp by-product from Social Foodies ice cream production contains many nutrients that we have converted into a fermented drink and a dessert, served with granola – a breakfast or snack, so loved by many Danes.
Through our solution, we continue to explore the challenge of converting the remaining chufa pulp, a somewhat difficult material, into a spoonable, homogenous, mildly sweet cream that is fermented with gut-health promoting bacteria. Our product will satisfy those who enjoy natural plant-based products with mildly sweet touch. It's high content of fiber creates additional value for the most demanding customers.
