https://reasonstobecheerful.world/demain-bakery-upcycling-food/
"From the outside, Demain looks like any other bakery in Paris. The bright blue
storefront, featuring huge glass vitrines, frames a bready feast for the eyes.
Behind it lie glorious piles of almond croissants, pistachio pastries, lemon
meringue tarts, pecan-speckled brownies and such a great quantity of bread that
the sight of it alone could probably induce gluten intolerance among innocent
passersby.
Yet there is one crucial difference with this
boulangerie: Its alluring goods
are slightly older than usual — from yesterday, not baked fresh this morning.
And in turn, Demain and its customers are helping, mouthful by buttery
mouthful, to end food waste in the French city.
“All of this would have ended up in the trashcan,” says Martin Herbelin, the
35-year-old co-founder of the company, shaking his head. Behind him a steady
flow of clients zip in and out of one of Demain’s three stores in Paris.
Herein lies the anti-waste concept behind Demain, the French word for
“tomorrow.” The company, launched in 2023, collects the day’s unsold bread and
pastries from a network of more than 20 partner artisan bakeries in the French
capital and resells them the next day with huge reductions, often half of the
initial price. That means there are delicious artisanal croissants on sale for
just €0.50; a thick loaf of
pain de campagne sourdough priced at just €4,
down from €8; traditional baguettes for less than a euro. About 50,000 of these
eminently edible goods are saved from the trash every month.
They could perhaps be described as Schrödinger’s pastries, simultaneously from
the past — yesterday — and a zero-waste future that Demain is helping to
pioneer in Paris.
“There’s so much value in what we are throwing away,” adds Herbelin. “We need
to change people’s mindsets. Once you do, it could have a huge impact.”"
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
