UK-based food waste prevention non-profit NotJUST (international) came to the aid of food distributor Blakemore twice in one week due to rejected orders, saving a total of 11 surplus pallets.

How Does Surplus Happen?

Surplus within the food industry can occur for a myriad of reasons: from mislabelling to burst packaging on a pallet. However, the most common reason is often a rejected order. Businesses may order 12 pallets of food only to collect 10 and leave the food distributor with 2 wasted pallets – and the disposal costs. NotJUST specialises in working B2B with food distributors in such scenarios: saving the food from landfill and recycling it back into communities.

How NotJUST Helps

Thanks to its responsiveness, NotJUST assisted Blakemore with two collections within one week. The non-profit saved 9 pallets of short-dated eggs and 2 pallets of mushrooms. Founder Lea Beven learned that the eggs would have had to be manually removed from their packaging before disposal. This would have increased the cost for Blakemore by adding wages and skip hire. Instead, NotJUST collected the produce and distributed it across their various projects across the UK. This includes food banks and community fridges and freezers. Excess went to their fundraising surplus stores for bargain prices.

New Initiative

NotJUST is launching ‘NotJUST A Food Waste Alliance’; an initiative to help more food businesses repurpose their surplus. Within the Alliance, businesses agree to alert NotJUST of all their surplus. NotJUST will collect it for half the quoted disposal cost: cutting down on expenses and boosting ESG ratings. From its extensive experience within the industry NotJUST understands the concerns with the redistribution of surplus or past best before food. As such, NotJUST A Food Waste Alliance works on an individual basis with each business’ legal and marketing teams to draw up a contract for agreed use of their surplus. Their aim is to ensure peace of mind, brand security, and help businesses. One Fresh Food Producer estimates that over the span of 4 months they have already saved £1800 in disposal costs.

How To Join

If NotJUST A Food Waste Alliance is an initiative you would like to explore, please head to www.not-just.org.uk/surplus/ for more information, troubleshooting, and to fill out an interest form. The site also offers a breakdown of ESG and CSR practices, and how they can benefit your business. Head to NotJUST A COMMUNITY – NotJUST (not-just.org.uk) to see how the food is used.