Instock has been rescuing so-called surplus food for over seven years and is now on the eve of a major leap in scale. Seven years ago, founders Selma, Merel, Bart and Freke started a pop-up restaurant with the help of their then employer, Albert Heijn Supermarkets, where unsold products were transformed into tasty dishes. After several permanent restaurants, their own beers, breads, cookbooks and a business-to-business marketplace, it is time for the next step: a large-scale distribution centre (3000 m2) where five million kilos of food will be processed in 2024.
Selma Seddik: “InstockMarket is the wholesaler of saved products. By using a convenient method, we make it as easy as possible for parties not to waste their products. Most of the products are perfectly suitable for the catering industry and food producers. About twenty percent ends up at charities such as the Food Banks and for ten percent we have to find another solution in, for example, animal feed, composting or fermentation. We would like to make more connections with charities, waste processors and perhaps also livestock farmers to make the ecosystem as circular as possible. The broader our circular coalition, the more food we can save.”
Fallacy
Edwin Kester, Director of Technology and Innovation at Rainbow Kleinpak (specialist in AGF logistics) sees a fundamental fallacy in society. “What we define as ‘good food’ is the real problem. When I see what is rejected, it doesn’t make sense. We all need to look at this differently. Setting up a circular distribution centre on this scale represents a hugely important step. With a large group of conscious companies, we can strike a new blow in the fight against food waste.”
Image: New Africa/Shutterstock
