Big Ideas: “Make tasty dips out of surplus vegetables which would otherwise be thrown away”, With Helena Gheeraert, founder of Wonky

Helena Gheeraert is the founder of Wonky, a Belgian company that makes tasty dips out of surplus vegetables which would otherwise be thrown away by food processing companies for aesthetic issues. She is also a Masters in Management graduate of Vlerick Business School, where she won the ‘Best Student Award’ in 2014.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of why you decided to follow this career path?

I started working as a management trainee in a big telecom company in Belgium. In this role, I had the opportunity to run through all kinds of departments in two years, and get to know the company.

Although I learned a lot, I realized that functioning in a big corporate environment wasn’t my cup of tea. I felt I wanted to do something more meaningful, with a concrete impact on society. When I learned about the mass of food that is wasted, I decided I wanted to tackle the issue.

Is it true that 45% of all fruit and vegetables are wasted worldwide?

Yes, 45% of fruits and vegetables are wasted worldwide. Of course, it depends on the country, but that’s the overall average.

Fruit and vegetables are very sensitive to damaging due to weather fluctuations or heavy transport. In addition, lots of ‘deformed’ vegetables are kept off the shelves and some parts of the vegetable are removed in the processing stages. Finally, some parts of vegetables we’re not used to eating are binned, such as broccoli stems, which are actually tasty, healthy and are perfectly fine to use.

Who is responsible for this?

Most of the food waste takes place in the consumption phase, meaning at people’s homes, in our own fridges. That’s mostly because consumers are confused when it comes to shelf lives, portion sizes, etc.

Also, the food industry wastes a lot when processing the food and supermarkets are quite strict when it comes to aesthetic requirements. 39% of all food waste takes place in the production phase, from harvesting to processing. Vegetables and fruits that do not meet the aesthetic criteria due to damaging or deformity are often thrown away, despite being just as good!

At the processing companies, waste takes place because of aesthetic reasons, efficiency considerations or overstocking. Mostly these products are actually fresh and tasty!

Why is throwing food away so bad?

Lots of people are starving and hungry, many of whom are a lot closer to home, so food waste feels very unnatural. Food waste also has a negative impact on the climate. 30% of all agricultural land is used for the production of food that is thrown away afterwards. That’s a surface as big as China and Canada put together — so lots of lost efforts, energy and space! Moreover, 20% of all fresh water is used for the production of food that is thrown away afterwards. Throwing away one apple is like spilling 100 litres of water.

Finally, food waste is responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, not only because of the production process, but also because of the methane that is produced during the rotting process of the wasted food. These emissions are, of course, very bad for the environment.

How is Wonky trying to address this?

Wonky is a company that wants to stop food waste. To do so, it offers tasty and healthy snacks full of rescued vegetables. As 45% of all vegetables are wasted, Wonky uses these rescued vegetables to create dips & spreads. We offer an easy and tasty way to tackle the food waste problem.

How do you rescue vegetables?

We collaborate with Belgian food processing companies and give their surplus vegetables a second life. The vegetables we use are perfectly qualitative. They would have been thrown away because of aesthetic reasons, efficiency or overstock. Examples of the vegetables we rescue are: broccoli and cauliflower stems, basil stems, wrongly cut carrots, bell peppers with pigment spots, etc.

What kind of dips do you make?

We have four flavours at the moment: the carrot dip, the paprika dip, the cauliflower-truffle dip and the Wonky guacamole. They’re all made of minimum 50% rescued vegetables and spiced up with fresh herbs.

What challenges do you face?

It was not easy to get the concept, starting from a small initiative, into a mass distribution channel. But we did manage to go into the bigger retailers because of our collaboration with an experienced production and packaging partner. We feel that we struggle with the same challenge now that we want to distribute internationally. To generate awareness in other countries, we really need a big marketing budget.

What will happen if we don’t reduce food waste globally?

As mentioned earlier, food waste has a big impact on climate change. In the midst of the raise in awareness on climate change, the urgency we felt was never stronger.

How can people help?

People can help by dipping and spreading the Wonky! If you want to stop useless food waste and rescue fresh vegetables that otherwise go to waste, then a great way to start would be trying out our dips and telling everyone about us in your country as well! Also, try to not waste food at home. There are lots of tips on our blog on how to avoid food waste in your own kitchen.

Thanks so much!