AUTHOR: Pete Thompson, MD at Reliquum
VIP drinks for our Food Made Good Awards this year will be sponsored by Reliquum! Here’s what they have to say on sponsoring:
What inspired you to support the Food Made Good Awards?
We have long admired the work of the SRA and having established both Cotchel juices and Reliquum spirits to create something beautiful from waste now seemed the right time as we demonstrate that waste can be transformed to something delicious.
How do you see the sustainability issue you’re aligning with help accelerate positive change in hospitality?
People are beginning to get to grips with both the damage food waste creates and, equally importantly, the un-tapped value in the produce we don’t use. For us as farmers we are on our way to closing the loop and realising the value in everything we produce. For example 2020 will be the first year when we put to use 100% of our apple & pear crops and waste nothing. We are just one of many inspiring waste to value brands but it would be good to see the wider uptake of grade 2 / out of spec produce in the restaurant sector and that means buyers seeing past some cosmetic issues and focussing flavour.
What sustainability issue do you expect to rise to the fore in 2020 and why?
We hope that soil and biodiversity receive the attention it deserves. Waste is undoubtedly important but as a sustainability issue it is perhaps the low hanging fruit. Conserving our soils, flora and fauna is a much bigger and more complex challenge. Part of this could well be a switch to different farming methods, the promotion of permanent crops and the integration of agro-ecological farming which could see both production of novel crops to the UK and increasing biodiversity.
