Bread lovers, beer lovers, and environment lovers all have one more thing to agree upon after a new product launch this week. Toast Ale has created a beer made of bread that would otherwise be wasted, in an effort to effectively put the global issue of food waste "out of business."
“Tackling the global issue of food waste has taken me all over the world,” explained Toast Ale Creator Tristram Stuart, in an article by the Independent. “It was at the Brussels Beer Project where I first found out about this innovative brewing process that turns a colossal global problem into a delicious, drinkable solution.”
Each beer contains one slice of surplus bread from bakeries, delis, and other sandwich makers, and is made by mashing the bread into breadcrumbs before brewing it with malted barley, hops, and yeast to make a distinctively flavored ale.
Produced by Hackney Brewery in east London, the beer will be available online at £3 ($4.38) per bottle. All profits will go to the food waste charity, Feedback, of which Stuart is also Founder. Feedback aims to cut the amount of food waste produced in the United Kingdom by 2030, following a report that the country wastes 15 million tons of food every year.
A spokeswoman for Toast Ale added that for homes in the United Kingdom, bread was the "worst offender” for food waste. At least 24 million slices of bread are thrown away each year, she added.
"We hope to put ourselves out of business,” Stuart added. “The day there's no waste bread is the day Toast Ale can no longer exist.”
The Toast Ale spokeswoman explained to the Independent that the amount of baked goods that are thrown away in households would be enough to prevent 26 million people across the globe suffering from malnutrition.
