Chef Marcus Samuelsson is spearheading a campaign to promote the use of rescued produce to commemorate Earth Week.
Samuelsson is partnering with Danone’s Two Good yogurt brand and produce rescue organization Full Harvest on the initiative which encourages restaurants across the country to use rescued produce in their kitchens and reduce the negative impact that produce waste has on the environment.
“Food waste directly impacts people and our planet, which is why as chefs we can be a vital part of finding solutions to eliminate it,” said Samuelsson.
He has created a special dish for his Red Rooster restaurant in New York City to promote the initiative, and is making the recipe available for home cooks. His Miso Glazed Salmon with Brown Butter Yogurt, Farro, and Cauliflower uses rescued lemon, cauliflower, and onion from Full Harvest.
The effort also supports Two Good’s One Cup, Less Hunger campaign, which launched last year in partnership with City Harvest and We Don’t Waste. Two Good donates 2 cents for every 5.3 ounces of Two Good low-fat yogurt purchased by consumers to these organizations, which in turn provides an equal amount of food to people in need.
Two Good and Full Harvest recently partnered to launch Two Good’s Good Save yogurt, which they said was the first dairy product to use verified Rescued Produce from Full Harvest. The first Good Save yogurt variety used rescued lemons.
Full Harvest runs a B2B online marketplace for imperfect and surplus produce, connecting farmers to food and beverage manufacturers to prevent produce from going to waste.
“Having partners like Danone North America and Chef Samuelsson helps Full Harvest create the awareness and demand needed for organizations to innovate and solve the massive waste problem with their buying power and our solution,” Christine Moseley, founder and CEO of Full Harvest, told SFA News Daily.
Samuelsson’s use of surplus and imperfect produce provides an example for other restaurants, she said, by demonstrating how to build sustainable items into their menu, tap into consumer demand and heighten awareness.
“Food waste is a $2.5 trillion problem,” Moseley said, citing a figure from a 2019 United Nations report quantifying the full global economic and environmental impact of the issue.
More than 25 percent of edible produce grown in the U.S. goes to waste at the farm level, she noted.
Consumers are well aware that food waste is an important issue, Mosely said, which is part of the appeal of the organization’s Verified Rescued Produce certification. Sales of products marketed as sustainable are growing seven times faster than their conventional counterparts, she said, noting that food and beverage companies that incorporate rescued produce into their offerings can bolster their sustainability positioning by using the Verified Rescued claim.
Sian Foulkes, senior brand manager at Danone Waters, told SFA News Daily that Samuelsson is “the perfect partner” for the program because of his commitment to combatting food waste and his ability to help spread the message that food chains need to be more sustainable.
“Marcus Samuelsson is not only a James Beard Award-winning chef, but he is actively working to help communities in need,” Foulkes said, citing Samuelsson’s work to feed people in need during the pandemic by partnering with World Central Kitchen to convert his restaurants into community kitchens.
Last year, Danone partnered with chef Tom Colicchio for the #MakeFoodGoFurther campaign to create how-to cooking videos in which Colicchio demonstrated ways to reduce food waste by making the most of every ingredient.
“We know a single brand can’t solve an issue the size of food waste by itself, but we have to do our part,” said Foulkes. “By partnering with like-minded chefs, we’re hoping to spread the message and consumers realize the scale of this issue to join the movement.”
Restaurants interested in learning more about efforts to reduce produce waste can contact [email protected].
Related: Initiative Encourages Chefs to Use Rescued Produce; Samuelsson’s 'The Rise' Highlights Opportunities in Emerging Culinary Niche.
Image: Red Rooster/Chef Marcus Samuelsson