Food waste has a huge impact on the environment and is becoming more and more unacceptable when we see the mounting effects of climate change and the desperate impact it is having on some of the poorest countries in the world.
When food is wasted, all the resources that went into growing that food are wasted as well. For instance, 25% of one of the world’s most precious resources – fresh water – is used to grow food that is never eaten.
As bakers and cake decorators we contribute to the problem when we fill our waste bins with cake off-cuts. But there is a solution.
OLIO is a food sharing app that connects users who have food they don’t want or need with neighbours living nearby who would like to take it.
But who would want cake off-cuts? There are so many desserts that cake tops can be used in there is absolutely no need for off-cuts to be wasted.
Take the wonderful layered desserts created by Jars by Dani. Dani uses cake baked to order for her desserts but we can take inspiration from her exquisite creations to solve our industry’s food waste problem. What a scrumptious way to use up your off-cuts!
But with busy work schedules, cakers shouldn’t feel they have to turn their off-cuts into amazing desserts before donating – you can share the Jars by Dani inspiration and the ideas on our How to Solve the Problem Of…..Off-Cuts page with your neighbours so that they can create these desserts with their children or have tiramisu or layered desserts for special occasions.
Or if you’re testing out new cake recipes and flavours but don’t want the guilt of eating the whole cake afterwards, with the OLIO app you can find a neighbour who would be delighted with free cake.
Whilst there are plenty of examples of bakers already sharing their delicious leftover home-bakes on OLIO, co-founder Tessa Clarke really believes that more bakers could be sharing their delicious leftover creations- so you can bake, fight food waste and help out your neighbours all at the same time. So spread the word and lets get sharing to conquer climate change!
Share more. Waste less.
