With an estimated revenue of £21.2 billion in 2020, the UK’s waste is big business.
But one local company is making their waste a little more… palatable.
Founded in 2007, The Tomato Stall was created to showcase the speciality organic and conventional tomato varieties grown on the Isle of Wight. It’s subsequently grown to supply fresh produce to Ocado, Amazon Fresh, recipe-box companies, independent restaurants, and 30+ farmers markets a week.
And their business expanded, so did their waste. Until they collaborated with the University of Portsmouth.
The university and The Tomato Stall secured a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) grant from Innovate UK, which provided The Tomato Stall with up to 67 per cent of the project costs to better utilise and manage their waste.
This money was used to employ Dr Diana Salgado, an expert in food preservation and managing sustainable food waste, who is rising to the challenge of producing sustainable and commercially viable solutions to reduce the waste products.
Some of which will be brought to the market later this year.
Daniella Voisey, business development manager at The Tomato Stall, said “Diana’s academic background means the products she developed were data-driven, she brought a broad knowledge base, and her thinking opened minds as to what our waste material could become."
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