A Montreal man is transforming food cast-offs into cookies.
Jonathan Rodrigue’s company, “Still Good,” transforms ingredients that most people would consider unusable into tasty treats.
“You’ve got the beet pulp, you have the spent grains, and you have the carrot pulp,” Rodrigue explained. “Those are the main ingredients that we use in the cookies and in the bars.”
The company collects its leftover pulp from fruit juices and grain used in microbreweries to make cookies and granola bars – a great way to fight food waste.
“I realized the scope of how much waste there was in food – 30 to 35 per cent of everything that’s produced is wasted at this point,” he said.
For years, Rodrigue worked at food bank Moisson Montreal – which is responsible for a program that now sees over 300 supermarkets in Quebec donate food that's slightly past its prime.
But he says he wanted to take it further, and find a way to upcycle food that was deemed unusable.
Forty per cent of each cookie is composed of reused food.
Recipes are the fruit of months of tasting; although some consumers are reticent at first, Still Good believes upcycling is here to stay.
“Upcycling and food waste production is not a trend – it’s actually something we really need to do, and I believe it’s the future.”
