Leading global leaders, entrepreneurs and investors will be offered a special taste of New Zealand during morning tea at the Future Food-Tech Summit in London next week.
Muffins and cupcakes might not sound particularly groundbreaking, but these ones – made from ‘rescued’ bread – will showcase a Kiwi company’s innovative way of dealing with waste.
Royce Bold, left and Diane Stanbra of Rescued Photo: Lewis Hartley
Diane Stanbra, founder of Auckland food waste company Rescued, says attending the summit is a huge coup for her fledgling business.
“There's some incredible people doing some really smart things in food, and so just to be there and amongst those people, I could not be more excited to learn and to make those connections.”
Stanbra started Rescued two years ago, after her catering businesses in Melbourne and Auckland were “wiped out” by Covid-19.
“It was a case of ‘oh my goodness, what do I do now?’,” she said.
Help came in the form of Countdown’s Kete Accelerator programme, which enabled her to explore an idea she’d been sitting on for a while. How could she tackle food waste – a huge problem globally – using traditional culinary techniques like preserving, freezing, cooking and drying?
“We started with bread that's one of the most wasted products globally,” Stanbra says.
“Because we had way too much time on our hands in lockdown, we were trying to work out how we actually give bread a new life.”
After connecting with chef Royce Bold (“a phenomenal chef with a big brain”), Stanbra started experimenting. Armed with just a NutriBullet and a home oven, the pair created ‘rescued’ bread flour that they called “literally the best thing since sliced bread”.
They’ve since turned this rescued ‘flour’ into a baking mix that stays edible for two years, compared to a couple of days for fresh bread.
“It’s been quite the extraordinary journey,” Stanbra says.
While sustainability is a major focus, Stanbra says Rescued products have to taste good to gain traction in a crowded and competitive market.
“Everything that we do has to taste delicious. People will buy something to support sustainability. But if it doesn’t taste good, they're probably not going to keep buying it.”
Rescued is the only New Zealand business to be invited to attend the Future Food-Tech summit. Stanbra says it’s a huge opportunity for people to “see and taste” the possibilities for food that would otherwise be discarded.
“It’s not waste, it just needs to be used in a different way. That’s what we're really just so passionate about. “
