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Assessment of the scale of the problem
Around ⅓ of the world's food is wasted each year. In Poland, it's up to about 5 million tonnes per year. Bread is at the forefront of products that most often end up in the trash. It quickly becomes stale and there is no habit or ideas for its further use. For this reason, the energy, water and equipment needed to produce it are wasted thoughtlessly and irretrievably. In addition, the disposal of food generates a specific amount of greenhouse gases.
If we additionally state that with the waste of food by 700 million people, we could feed 2 billion - it's hard to believe.
Our feeling of responsibility for the people and the natural environment mobilized us to actively work for the REBREAD idea.
First alcohol, then a circular loaf of bread
Craft liquor, which has been successfully created from excluded bread, was a start of REBREAD’s research for solutions to the global problem of bread waste.
If you can make alcohol with it, you can certainly process it into other, valuable products.
We started to develop industry recipes. Now, for baking circular breads, up to 30% of the bread contains krast - crushed, stale bread. It happened! The baked breads were as fragrant, similar and tasty as those from traditional baking. In addition, it was found that circular bread containing krast keeps fresh for longer! Baking circular bread by bakeries would not only reduce the consumption of resources, but also will allow the owners to achieve significant financial savings.
Upcycled food and other bread products
We have gathered around us an international group of friendly scientists and craftsmen from various fields. It soon turned out that products that can be made on the basis of saved bread constitute a very wide category. In different parts of the world, various ideas, projects and initiatives were created, but this knowledge was either dispersed, fragmented or there was a lack of appropriate research. We decided to sort it out, supplement it and prepare it for use by others.
We want our recipes to be circular and new products to be designed in the spirit of zero waste.
Furthermore, we managed to get over 400,000 PLN co-financing from the "Innovation Voucher". In cooperation with the Department of Carbohydrate Technology and Grain Processing at the University of Agriculture in Kraków, we are developing microbiological characteristics and optimal methods of drying bread from returns. The results of our research will be crucial in defining exactly when stale bread becomes waste and how much time we have to extend its market life cycle by further processing it into other valuable products.
Our cooperation with the University of Poznań and other units, including foreign ones, results in valuable research finds.
Dried and milled surplus bread can be processed not only into new bakery and food products, distillates, beer and kvass, but also into a substrate for growing edible mushrooms, and even cosmetics!
Read more about our anti-waste solutions.
There are a lot of possibilities. New technologies and recipes can also help other industries. Instead of using nutshells, materials imported from afar or synthetic abrasive particles in popular scrubs, which later get into the water, you can use a bread product that is safe for the environment. In addition, it is cheaper because it can be obtained from local bakeries and thus reduces both the carbon footprint and costs.
Another example is the bread-derived umami flavor that can be obtained by combining bread with edible koji mushrooms. This can be a great wholesome alternative for those who would like to switch to a plant-based diet but simply love the taste of meat and would like to keep it.
We are guided by "Design Global, Manufacture Local"
Since the idea of the circular economy and sustainable development is close to our hearts, we don’t want to transport baguettes from one end of the world and convert them into a new product, only to send them back the same way. This would be too much of a burden on the environment and use too much energy.
The solution is to develop recipes and make them available, so that other people can use them and thus save bread in other parts of the world.
We want to create an entire ecosystem around bread based on the idea of open manufacturing, which distinguishes us from most startups. By co-creating know-how, we will be able to systematically and effectively solve the problem of bread waste around the world. As REBREAD, we want to inspire and connect suppliers with buyers by creating local cooperation networks. This way it will be possible to develop the best universal solutions for every place in the world, with the principle of "Design Global, Manufacture Local".
