A UK company has found a brilliant and delicious way to address food waste. Now, surplus bread in the UK will no longer be wasted as Feedback, a food waste charity, have partnered with local bakeries to transform surplus bread into something even more delicious - beer.
The beer, named Toast Ale, was launched early this year and is available online with a selling price of £3 per bottle according to an article by Francesca Gosling in Independent. Feedback founder Tristram Stuart said that he roamed the world trying to find a solution to the global issue of food waste. Stuart was inspired of creating the Toast Ale idea when he learned of this unique brewing process when he visited the Brussels Beer Project, a brewing technique that magically solves the food waste problem into a delicious and thirst-quenching solution.
Stuart added that they hope a day will come when they put themselves out of business. When that day comes, it means that the project would have succeeded its aim in zero food wastage, which would also mean no more surplus bread and therefore no more ingredient for their delicious brew.
The beer is being produced by Hackney Brewery east of London. The brewing process involves mashing the surplus bread and brewing it with yeast, hops and barley.
All profits from the beer business will go to Feedback to help the charity in its aim to cut food waste to 50 percent by 2030. According to the charity, 15 million tons of food are wasted in UK every year. Among these wasted food items, bread is considered to be the most wasted food item with around 24 million slices of it being thrown away annually.
Belgium's Brussels Beer Project has pioneered this brewing technique to solve the Brussels' own food waste problem where it was reported that an astounding 20 percent of bread are wasted according to an article by Hilary Pollack in Munchies.
