Earth & Wheat founder James Eid on three years of rescuing baked goods

In 2021, entrepreneur and fourth-generation baker James Eid founded Earth & Wheat having seen the eyewatering amount of baked goods his family bakery was forced to throw out every day.

Three years later and the business is now working with multiple suppliers, has saved 600 tonnes of food from going to waste, and secured a coveted Baking Industry Award for Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2022. The mission isn’t over though, in fact Earth & Wheat has set a target to rescue 1,000 tonnes of food which otherwise would have ended up in the bin by the end of this year.

“It has certainly been a whirlwind three years,” says Eid. “It is incredible to think that our efforts – thanks to the support of our wonderful wonky warrior customers – have resulted in us collectively being able to stop 600 tonnes of good food from going to waste.

“This is food that would have been thrown away even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with it and it still tastes delicious. It was just too big, too small, or too odd looking. But through our mission, we’ve seen people change their mindset and the numbers we see sign up to our food waste rescue mission continue to grow.”

Earth & Wheat redistributes the food – predominantly wonky baked goods including crumpets, flatbreads, and pastries, as well as fruit and vegetables – via its direct-to-consumer website. These can be bought as a one off or as part of a rolling subscription with prices starting from £7.99.

“We’re working with multiple suppliers and most of the waste we save is from larger scale operations where we can make the biggest difference,” Eid notes, adding that the organisation does work with some small and medium-sized bakeries so is open to collaboration.

Early on in its journey, the “young and aspiring” brand trialled a wonky biscuit box, although this has since been removed from its offering. “Biscuits are a commoditised product and subject to price sensitivities, especially in the UK market at this point in time so we have no future plans to bring this back into the range at the moment,” Eid explains. Thankfully, he adds, biscuits can be upcycled and points to efforts of manufacturers in reducing wasted products in their bakeries.

Eid has outlined a long-term ambition to develop further relationships with other bakery firms and suppliers, and save more food from waste through Earth & Wheat’s processes. He is also hoping for wider change and is calling on the baking industry to action this.

“Bakeries should, at the very least, be increasing tolerances in specifications so that less waste is produced from the onset,” he believes. “However, if any bakery is interested in taking positive action to reduce food waste, they should get in touch with us as we’ve love to work with them and help reduce their waste which can, ultimately, improve their bottom line too.”