Food waste is a social issue of increasing importance. EDEKA Minden-Hannover is therefore constantly working to make its contribution to reducing food waste

Food waste is a social issue of increasing importance. EDEKA Minden-Hannover is therefore constantly working to make its contribution to reducing food waste

Food waste is a social issue of increasing importance. EDEKA Minden-Hannover is therefore constantly working to make its contribution to reducing food waste. This also includes the project “Love² – save ripe fruit”. Fruit and vegetables that are unfit for sale but too good to throw away are given a “second life” as chutney, pesto or ketchup, among other things. The production takes over the TRISKELE- Wennigsen gGmbH, workshop for handicapped people. Love² (pronounced love squared) is now available exclusively from EDEKA Ladage at Hauptstrasse 14 in Wennigsen.

Crooked carrots, soft tomatoes, pears that are too big or too small – fruit and vegetables that don’t look perfect are often left lying around. These products are not spoiled and can be consumed without hesitation. With Liebe², ripe fruit and less-than-perfect vegetables get a second chance by being processed into delicious chutneys, soups or pesto and these can be bought again in EDEKA stores. “With this project, we are setting an example against food waste in our store in Wennigsen,” explains Steffen Döring, Managing Director of EDEKA Ladage.

Liebe² also focuses on integration and participation. “Thanks to our great cooperation partner TRISKELE Wennigsen, people who need assistance can produce these high-quality chutneys and soups according to their own recipes. In this way, the added value remains directly in the region,” explains Detlef Matz, Sales Manager at EDEKA Minden-Hannover. “We are very pleased that we have been able to facilitate the fifth cooperation for the Liebe² project with TRISKELE- Wennigsen gGmbH and Stefan Ladage’s local EDEKA store,” says Harpreet Ahluwalia, EDEKA Regional Purchasing West/Northwest. “The community project is an affair of the heart for us. We are constantly looking for new partners and are currently planning further cooperations.”

Proud of a sustainable and high-quality product
Employees at TRISKELE- Wennigsen gGmbH collect the extra-ripe and less-than-perfect-looking fruit and vegetables directly from the EDEKA warehouse. It has already been sorted there. In the TRISKELE, employees with a need for assistance process the food into delicious products in a sheltered workshop – basically without artificial additives. “The idea for a second life in the form of chutneys or soups takes up tried-and-true knowledge, namely to boil down seasonal and regional foods, preserve them and enjoy them at any time of the year,” describes Uwe Nordhausen, Managing Director of TRISKELE- Wennigsen gGmbH.

As of this week, there are six different Liebe² products at EDEKA Ladage in Wennigsen: tomato ketchup (250 ml), pesto rosso (210 g), apple and pear chutney (210 g), paprika and carrot chutney (210 g) , paprika-carrot-coconut-soup (500 ml) and paprika-carrot-coconut-soup “spicy” (500 ml).

EDEKA

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