Two friends passionate about reducing food waste have launched an online grocery market which sells products that would originally get thrown away.
Co-Founders Alina Sartogo, 34, and Dini McGrath, 30, have launched a pilot scheme for the Wandsworth area of their online grocery shop – The Wonki Collective.
They started the business with the aim of making high-quality, healthy food, more affordable while saving produce that would be thrown away elsewhere.
The Wonki Collective pledges to make food shops cheaper for customers as they rescue products direct from the supplier.
The brand buys the produce at a lower price and is able to cut out the cost of a middleman.
Dini told the Wandsworth Times: “In this day and age, the cost of living is going through the roof as we all know and people don’t have the same disposable income as they had six months ago.
“We want to make sure that we can keep everyone eating great quality food.
“We want people to be able to pick what they want in their delivery so there isn’t that waste at the end that you sometimes see with other similar food boxes.
“Sometimes when you have a surprise box, the consumer won’t like what they get in it so it gets wasted in the end anyway.”
Alina explained that The Wonki Collective would be able to replace your weekly shop and arrives on a fixed date rather working on a speedy delivery service model.
The food that is included in the Wonki boxes is rescued from suppliers that would originally throw them away, whether that means that they have some level of visual defect, surplus stock or dates unsuitable for big retails.
Alina said: “One reason they might get thrown is the cosmetic aspect – Sometimes it is damaged or has an old logo on the packaging, or maybe a misprint.
“Shelf life is another issue – as soon as a product goes below 75 per cent of its self-life a lot of big retailers will no longer take it even if there is one or two years before the best before date.
“All of these products get rejected from the big retailers and all that food gets wasted – the food system is totally broken because large retailers have the power.”
Dini said: “In the food industry, no matter how well you forecast or how well you produce there will always be some element of the unknown.
“So we see supermarkets saying they want a certain amount of food and then pulling back on it.
“Or if it is a natural product, you never know if you are going to underproduce or over produce - and it is always better for them to overproduce so you get wastage.
“Generally imperfect foods get thrown away too.
“I saw all of this wastage and realised there needs to be an outlet for all of this amazing good quality produce to be sold to consumers who want nutritious healthy food.
“We combined Alina’s vision of working with this amazing food and my knowledge of how the supply chain works in the food industry to lead us to where we are.”
Alina grew up in Italy, surrounded by fresh, flavourful local food and an ethos of “you are what you eat”.
She also spent 10 years as a commercial lawyer.
Meanwhile, Dini spent the last eight years building sustainable brands and gaining unique insights into how hard it is to produce great food sustainably without anything going to waste.
The duo explained that around 40 per cent of food that is produced never makes it to a supermarket shelf.
The Wonki Collective is working with the Wandsworth customers on their pilot scheme with to iron out the business model before a full-fledged launch.
Dini, who is from Wandsworth herself, said: “We don’t want a big footprint, we want local warehouses and to deliver direct to local consumers via E bikes and things like that to make sure we don’t create any more carbon emissions than what we need.
“Wandsworth is full of such amazing people are there are so many sustainable initiatives in the area – it seems to be a very conscious consumer area and full of people who care about the world.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here