Food waste from restaurants, grocery stores, and more is a huge problem in this country, and while the concept probably conjures up images of spoiled fruit and vegetables, table scraps, and so on, one type you probably haven’t considered (I didn’t) is candy waste. In this case, leftover toffee crumbs. So Bontà Natural Gelato and Holm Made Toffee Company have teamed up to turn Holm’s toffee waste into a specialty gelato flavor.

Here is the press release issues by Bontà about the collaboration:

The magnitude of our nation’s food waste problem is difficult to comprehend. According to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. generates 63 million tons of food waste worth $218 billion every year. Fortunately, food producers, processors, the food service industry and nonprofits are looking hard at how to cut waste for economic, social and environmental reasons.

This fall two High Desert Food & Farm Alliance Partners and food entrepreneurs are teaming up to offer a creative, sweet solution to reducing food waste down to zero. Bontà Natural Artisan Gelato and Holm Made Toffee Co. are releasing a new gelato flavor series made with delicious toffee crumbs leftover during the toffee production and packaging process. The debut flavor of the series, called Sweet Repeat, will be espresso toffee crumbs with Thump Espresso gelato! More flavor combinations will follow.

“As a small family business, ‘waste’ is treated as a bad word around here,” joked Randi Holm of Holm Made Toffee Co. “We try and re-use and recycle as much as we can in all aspects of our business. And this specific initiative has been a lot of fun to create. We hope everyone loves the flavor, but more importantly the message behind it.”

“As a small business owner, getting every ounce out of resources is crucial to success,” agreed Juli Labhart of Bontà Natural Artisan Gelato. “Waste is not in my genetics. My grandparents were farmers, so using everything was just ingrained in me. When Randi reached out to us about the toffee crumbs, it was a no brainer.”

Save room for Sweet Repeat, which will be offered for the first time at Bontà Natural Artisan Gelato Scoop shop in downtown Bend. We cannot think of a better way to celebrate collaborative, ingenious solutions to combating food waste in local kitchens.

To learn more about food waste reduction in your home, check out the Environmental Center’s ReThink Food Waste Campaign. To learn about programs to reduce food waste by diverting edible food to local hunger relief agencies, contact the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance.

The release doesn’t specify when the Sweet Release flavor will be available, so it might be now!

I like the initiative on this, and I’d love to hear more stories about what local companies are doing to address the food waste issue. If you know of any please pass them along and let’s get the word out!