How often do we disregard a fruit or vegetable just because it is too ripe or because it’s not just the right shape? What happens to all these disregarded fruits and vegetables? Well, if they fall into Jenny’s hands, they’d end up being a jam, chutney, ketchup or mayonnaise. Jenny is the founder and CEO of ‘Rubies in the Rubble’, an organisation based in the UK, that is committed to the motto of ‘ finding flavour in flaw and abundance in waste.’
Jenny was brought up on the remote west coast of Scotland, and her mother used to grow a vegetable garden. She believes that food should be valued as a precious resource. That is why all their products are packed with delicious ingredients that would otherwise go to waste – not because they taste any different, but often because they’re the wrong shape, size or colour.
“When you grow your own food, you really treasure it and make sure nothing is wasted. So my mother always made chutneys, jams, preserves and cordials with anything left over from the garden. With her recipes, it was an easy way to get going”, says Jenny about her early years.
Later, she moved to London in order to start a job in Finance, where she first learnt about the staggering amount of food that is wasted every single day. Absolutely shocked by the amount of fruit and vegetable that is rejected just because it doesn’t look perfect, she began rescuing produce from New Covent Garden market and began exploring the recipes from her childhood in the kitchen.
In 2012, she decided to take the idea from a passionate hobby to her mainstream career. And after eight purposeful years, Rubies in the Rubble stands as one of the pioneering voices in food sustainability, with an award-winning range of ketchups, mayos and relishes with a nationwide stock all over the UK.
The company obtain the fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and send it to their manufacturing facilities, which are outsourced. Also, there have been challenges to Jenny all along. Conventional food manufacturing and processing facilities weren’t designed to support what Jenny wanted to do.The initial producers she approached were not used to having fresh veg and fruit supplied to them, and instead used tinned or frozen ingredients.
“But I started my career in finance, but quickly realised that I wanted to do something that I feel passionate about. I remember first seeing an article about dumpster diving in the paper. Reading more about the sheer size of the food waste problem in the UK, it was eye-opening to see the scale of the environmental impact it is having in terms of emissions” says Jenny.
Over the years, the company has seen a lot of expansion and Jenny firmly believes that it is because of the taste. A lot of feedback the company receives on it’s website is about people gushing about how much they love the taste of the products. Most commonly, the customers muse that they bought the product and loved the taste and now that they’ve read the backstory and know Jenny’s purpose, they love it all the more!
“We make absolutely sure that our products taste as good or better than anyone else’s. I think sometimes charities and social enterprises can sit too heavily on their social cause. My purpose might be social, but the customer’s purpose when buying a jam or ketchup is to eat something that tastes great“, adds Jenny.
On influencing customer behaviour and attitude, Jenny says that she wants to get to the point where wasting food is seen as an unenlightened, morally wrong thing to do-a social taboo, just like littering or using plastic bags. Till date, ‘Rubies in the Rubble’ managed to save 126,195 Kg of fruits and vegetable from going to a waste.
If you are looking for some amazing ketchup or relish that comes with an explosion of flavours, visit www.rubiesintherubble.com to contribute to less waste and more taste!
