Save Eat: the solution to food waste

During a short interview, our team had the pleasure of meeting Dorothée Bessière, the co-founder of Save Eat, the anti-gaspi platform. It was an opportunity for her to take stock of the past year and tell us about Save Eat's plans for 2021.

Hello Dorothée, could you tell us a little more about Save Eat? Where are you today?

Save eat is a startup committed to raising consumer awareness of food waste. We started in 2018 by launching the Save eat platform, which allows us to cook without wasting. In practical terms, the platform suggests recipes based on the ingredients available in our kitchen as well as expiry dates. The aim is to provide access to recipes for cooking your leftovers but also to use products that are all too often thrown away.

Then, in 2019, we launched anti-gaspi events to raise awareness among employees in companies. Finally, since last year, we have developed a third area. Up until now, we have been present in consumers' kitchens with the app, and then in consumers' workplaces with the events. But there was a third area missing, and that was distribution. So we set up a partnership with Carrefour to offer anti-gaspi tips and recipes on the shelves.

Has the health context had an impact on your business or your missions? What is your assessment of 2020? Are consumers receptive to Save Eat?

2020 has been a pivotal year for the responsible consumption trend. We have seen a growing interest in the subject of anti-waste and zero waste, both from the consumer's point of view and from the point of view of the recipe platform. Indeed, consumers are increasingly interested. We saw a real boom last year around the time of containment. The reason for this is that people are spending more and more time in the kitchen, they want to consume more responsibly, and they're wondering how to use ingredients in their entirety... So there's a real change in attitudes and habits that are becoming more and more ingrained in consumers' daily lives. Today we can see that this interest in anti-gaspi cooking is still alive and well, and that the French have not lost their good habits of confinement!

I would even say that they are generally receptive to responsible consumption, and at Save Eat, we really feel this when it comes to food, but it's also true when it comes to cosmetics, clothing, etc. In the broadest sense, we can see that there is a growing trend and that it is affecting more and more people.

You're working with businesses to raise awareness of food waste. How is this possible?

The aim is to respond to the desire of companies to raise awareness of food waste among their employees. To raise awareness of this issue, we set up anti-waste cooking workshops, tastings, demonstrations, quizzes, etc. to show them in practical terms how to reduce food waste in their kitchens.

You recently set up a partnership with Carrefour Market. What does it involve and what is its objective?

We are currently working with Carrefour to offer anti-gasp tips and recipes directly on the shelves. The aim is to provide consumers with more local support when they do their shopping. So, to set up this partnership with Carrefour, we've worked with them to define 80 tips and recipes that can be used directly to bring small messages to consumers as they do their shopping. To give you just a few examples, these are :

• Buy an apple in every kilo of potatoes to prevent them from sprouting

• Give tips on how to use cakes that are a little soft or broken

• Store your aromatic herbs in the freezer to keep them for longer...

In short, a whole host of good tips to be found on the shelves!

What does Save Eat say is the right thing to do?

It's often said that we should go back to our senses: smell, look at and touch products rather than simply relying on their use-by date. This helps us to use a product when it's still good, rather than throwing it away based solely on its use-by date, without ever asking ourselves more questions. Of course, you need to be careful with very fresh products such as fish or red meat, as these are products for which you need to keep a close eye on the best-before date.

Generally speaking, you need to go back to your senses to make the right choices and avoid throwing things away unnecessarily. You should also always try to buy in the right quantities to avoid having too much surplus, by asking yourself what you can do with the ingredients you have. There's always a way of putting them together so that they can be eaten and not thrown away.

Do you have any other news to share with us? What are your plans for 2021?

As far as our news is concerned, there's mainly the evolution of the platform. As of January 2021, we are no longer available on Google Play and Apple Store. We are now available directly on our website. In fact, the application can be used from your computer, tablet or phone, without having to download anything. In terms of use, nothing has changed. Users can still add their ingredients, manage their kitchen, have their own personalised account with expiry dates, etc.

Then, for 2021, we're going to continue to develop our commercial activity, in particular our in-company events. As a result of the health crisis, we are now offering our corporate events by videoconference. This allows us to create moments between employees, to bring together teams who haven't seen each other for a long time and who need to get together for some team-building and get-togethers that are friendly and fun. The staff are always very happy to see each other again and to cook together, it creates a great atmosphere!

For 2021, we're also hoping to forge new partnerships so that we can be present in more supermarket chains and on more supermarket shelves.

The last word?

Download Save Eat! Keep up the momentum on responsible consumption, which we find extremely interesting. It's a subject we're passionate about, and we hope it'll continue to grow!

Contacts

Website: https: //www.saveeat.co/

Social networks: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Linkedin