Rescuing broccoli stalks and cauliflower leaves, one ferment at a time

What happens to the parts of a vegetable that never make it onto the plate? And could the answer be hiding in one of the oldest food technologies in the world?

The UK produces around ten million tonnes of food waste every year, and a third of the food made for human consumption is wasted. Most of the innovation in this space has focused on shiny new technology. Rebecca Ghim’s answer is far older: fermentation. She rescues the cauliflower leaves and broccoli stalks that restaurants, caterers and veg prep manufacturers throw away, and turns them into kimchi and pickles.

In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, Rebecca, co-founder of The Ferm, tells the story of building an upcycling business with no background in food or hospitality.

She explains how she found her suppliers at running and cycling clubs, and why broccoli stalks, once peeled, make a near-perfect canvas for fermentation.

In the Q&A she gives a surprisingly generous definition of what counts as kimchi, explains why upcycling is held back more by missing specification sheets than by missing waste, and covers the early research (so far in mice only) suggesting a strain found in kimchi may help the body clear microplastics.

If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com