Save Eat, cooking without wasting!
These days, it's vital to consume better and waste less. That's the challenge set by this young Save Eat start-up founded by two daring women.
It's a story full of pep and enthusiasm that also reflects Obvy's vision of improving the everyday lives of French people!
Can you tell us about your company and its history (how the founders met, what they found, the market, the company's history, etc.)?
There are two of us behind the project:
Isaure Tsassis, a Food and Health engineer who has always loved cooking, inventing new recipes and never lacking in inventiveness in front of her (more or less empty...) fridge.
Dorothée Bessière, a mechanical engineer, has always had a knack for finding simple, innovative solutions that can be implemented with very little resources.
From left to right, Dorothée and Isaure. Co-founders of Save Eat
It was this explosive mix that enabled us to create Save Eat, the app that lets you cook without wasting, thanks to simple and original recipes for using up the leftovers in your fridge and easily managing use-by dates. It all started during their final year of study, on the campus of our university in England, where we were doing a master's degree in innovation and design thinking. On Sundays, we used to collect consumable waste from our flatmates' bins, such as slightly stale bread and a few slightly damaged apples to make delicious crumble!
Over the years, we've experimented with new recipes using more and more food destined for the bin (banana peel cake, leftover wraps, pizza-style French toast...).
And when we took a closer look at the causes of food waste, we realised that households are primarily responsible for food waste (33% compared with 15% for the much-talked-about supermarkets). Of the 79 kg of food waste thrown away each year by each individual, 20 kg could easily be avoided if we were to change our behaviour.
That's 13 kg of leftovers from meals, fruit and vegetables, and above all 7 kg of food that hasn't even been opened. In total, every year, 1.3 million tonnes of food are simply wasted in French households, which corresponds to 38 kg of edible food thrown away every second!
The causes are varied: poor management of quantities, inappropriate storage, expiry dates and failure to eat leftovers. We launched the Save Eat application to help consumers manage the contents of their kitchen/fridge and their leftovers, and to reduce the amount of food thrown away.
38 kg of edible food thrown away every second!
How does your concept fit in with the collaborative economy? Why did you choose to set up a company in this sector?
The very name of our company is part of a social and solidarity-based approach, with the aim of combating food waste. We're both horrified by food waste and try to make the most of every last bit of it in our daily lives to avoid throwing it away; we wanted to play our part in the national objective of reducing food waste by 50% by 2025, simply by sharing our know-how through an app.
How can your concept help the world get better?
Combating food waste by guiding consumers to eat their food on time and making them realise that there are a whole host of things they could save from the bin... That's the challenge taken up by our Save Eat! application. It offers simple, original, everyday recipes that are totally adapted to the contents of your fridge to prevent food ending up in the bin. You can even learn how to cook with peelings and make a delicious cake from banana peels!
What's in it for consumers?
Many consumers are looking to save money on their food budget, and the key is to consume intelligently and reduce the amount of food they throw away. The application educates them, helping them on a daily basis in the management and use of their food and teaching them how to make good meals with few ingredients.
How do your company and Obvy complement each other for consumers and society?
Obvy and Save Eat are based on a sharing society in which knowledge and goods are pooled. With this in mind, Save Eat wants to create a community of people with a common goal and values, who can share their tips and recipes.
What's the latest news?
Since 2017, our startup has been based at Station F, the startup campus launched by Xavier Niel, and at Pépinière 27. The application launched on 1 February already has more than 3,000 users. The second version is already under development for release in early summer.
The last word?
Food first, speeches later!
Contact: on our website www.saveeat.co
Email : [email protected]