Since 2016, LOOP Mission has been fighting food waste through our circular economy project that effectively repurposes fresh fruits and vegetables rejected by the food service industry. Now, when you’re the first to do something, it’s not uncommon for people to question how it all comes together. And since our community is part of our team, we’re more than willing to bring you behind the scenes. Without further ado, let’s dive into our production process and answer all of your juicy questions.
The Art of Upcycling
Firstly of all, let’s be clear: we aren’t dumpster divers. No, we do not get our ingredients from the compost or any sort of trash bin. They actually come from food distributors who sell their fruits and veggies to grocery store chains. We buy our ingredients from the same source your local grocery store buys its produce. Now, what you may not know is that 80% of food waste is created by the food industry. Truckloads of bananas or cases of oranges, for example, end up in landfills simply for reasons that have to do with the mass production and distribution process. If the bananas even slightly begin to turn yellow, grocers won’t accept them. As soon as a fruit or vegetable begins its ripening process, it’s deemed unacceptable for purchase and won’t last long enough on grocery store shelves. This is where we come into play.
Why the Rejects Aren’t Rejects Afterall
Have you ever eaten a mango that’s juicy, ripe, and colourful? How about a gorgeous yellow banana? Or a perfectly crunchy apple that may have a slight scratch? All these are examples of perfectly good fruits and vegetables that have reached the optimal stage in their ripening process, but unfortunately don’t qualify for entrance into grocery stores. Potatoes may get rejected for simply being too skinny in size. The examples go on. Our ingredients are nutritious, delicious, and perfectly good to eat. And one thing is for sure - we always quality control each and every single one of our ingredients. Which brings us to the next section.
The Costs Behind the Bottle
Did you know that we’re the first company in North America that has our particular production process? That’s right. And I’ll explain why. Our ingredients arrive to us fresh, whole and well-packaged since they were intended to go onto grocery store shelves. We do not buy fruit puree, nor do any of our ingredients arrive frozen. We 100% rely on and pay food distributors for these ingredients at almost full cost, even if they would have disposed of these perfectly good fruits and veggies. Another big cost and added complexity when it comes to our production process is labour. We have to prepare each of our ingredients to be cold-pressed. Imagine having to peel a truckload of bananas one by one, or opening up each bag of oranges and peeling them. This means that we use a lot of manual labour! This element is definitely time-consuming and costly, but completely worth it in our eyes since we’re making a huge positive impact on our environment.
Real Impact - Real Results
As an environmentally conscious and mission-driven company, every day is Earth Day. Thanks to your choice to shop from a sustainable company that’s focused on fighting food waste, we were able to:
- Rescue 45,911,949 pounds of fruits & veggies
- Avoid 28,684,345 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions
- Save 1,462,046,734 liters of water
- Rescue 1,567,926 slices of bread
These results are thanks to your support. We’re so grateful for everyone that’s part of our Rescue Squad. This is the positive impact of our accumulated efforts, and it’s only going to keep increasing from here!
To summarize, the ingredients we use are not spoiled or rotten. They were simply rejected in the food distribution process for life-cycle reasons or trivial physical characteristics. The size or shape of an apple doesn’t make it any less delicious or nutritious. We’re so glad to rescue the tons and tons of perfectly ripe fruits and vegetables from their initial sad fate. Instead of being wasted, we’re giving them a second chance and transforming them into healthy and fresh cold-pressed juices, sparkling probiotic sodas, delicious lemonades, and more. The significant load of our manual labour largely contributes to the complexity of our production process and costs, but if it means being able to offer you premium products that are not only good for you but the planet too, it’s 1000% worth it.