The Rescued range of upcycled products is now available for customers to buy at select Countdown stores. Rescued takes leftover bread from Countdown bakeries and turns it into easy-to-make vanilla, chocolate, lemon and gin botanicals and savoury baking mixes. It also produces plain and herb breadcrumbs.
“When we first began our journey to tackle food waste in Aotearoa through upcycling, one of our biggest goals was to be selling our products in the same place we’re rescuing from - and we’ve done it,” said Diane Stanbra, Rescued Founder.
“The support we’ve been given over the last eight months has been great, and it’s only up from here. There are so many opportunities for reducing food waste to landfill through upcycling, and we’re really looking forward to what’s ahead.”
The food rescue initiative is part of Countdown’s Kete programme that supports five small and diverse businesses to achieve success. Kete participants receive a package worth over $250,000, including a $20,000 cash grant, marketing support, customer insights, product development and manufacturing support.
“At Countdown our priority is to avoid creating food waste in the first place by making sure we’re not ordering or producing more than we need, but the nature of fresh food and serving over 3 million customers a week means that some level of waste is inevitable,” said Steve Mills, Countdown’s Commercial Director of Packaged Goods.
“To make sure as little as possible is ending up in landfill, we have a policy of donating food that’s still fit for consumption but can’t be sold - and we work with over 25 food rescue partners to make this happen. However, we do still have some food that’s currently ending up as animal feed or, unfortunately going to landfill - especially with short shelf life products like bread that our food rescue partners struggle to find enough outlets for. That’s where Rescued has come in!”
“We’ve worked really closely with Diane and the rest of the team at Rescued to find sustainable, circular solutions to these challenges and it’s amazing to finally have a new, delicious answer on shelf for customers!”
Rescued products are available at Countdown Mt Eden, Manukau, St Johns and Ponsonby.
