Yume - Wholesale Food Rescuers

Melbourne's Yume is starting to make a dint in the 3.9 million tonnes of wasted food you never hear about.

You never hear about it because up until now, it's been quietly dumped in landfill. Food that is perfectly edible, but for some reason is unacceptable for sale or difficult to sell.

Founded in 2014 by food rescuer, Katy Barfield, Yume is a growing online marketplace who take food which never makes it to the retailer's front door, and sells it to other buyers. Perfectly edible food.

Before Yume, these products were literally dumped in landfill. And while millions of tonnes of food are still being dumped, Katy Barfield is saving more and more of it. Since they started, Yume have processed in excess of 1,000 different surplus products, priced at least 20% below wholesale - and sometimes even up to 80%.

THE PROCESS IS SIMPLE. YUME OFFER THEIR PLATFORM TO DISPLAY THE FOOD BY CATEGORY AND FOR A FEE, DIVERT THE FOOD FROM IT'S ORIGINAL TARGET BUYER TO SOMEONE ELSE. ANY BUSINESS WHO WANTS TO BUY IT CAN AND DO - HOTELS, PUBS, MANUFACTURERS, RESTAURANT GROUPS AND CATERERS ALL ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 

Why do businesses choose to buy from Yume?  Why wouldn't they? It's good food and there is nothing wrong with it - it's fresh, cheap and good quality. Buyers like Sodexo, Delaware North, Colonial Leisure Group, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Yume reports that Colonial Leisure Group says:

'At Colonial Leisure Group, we're dedicated to sourcing ethical and sustainable products for our diverse array of venues. We use the Yume platform as it allows us to source high-quality products while also allowing us to contribute to the reduction of food waste.' 

Food is dumped for all kinds of reasons. One you might be more familiar with because of social media images is farmers who are often forced to dump tonnes of produce because it doesn't meet supermarket's strict standards or missed their delivery window.  Farmers aren't the only ones who miss windows. Or food manufactures may simply have a poor seller or end of run item.

On the Yume platform in September are chicken nuggets. This product is made to order for several large restaurants around Australia, however during the manufacturing process some of the nuggets got 'out of spec' - due to the size, missing a bit of the crumb, or they are just end of the run. Yume almost always has cuts of meat, often organic. 



Salmon fillets and seafood are also often found on Yume. One example of 1,000 kg of centre-cut frozen salmon fillets (300g portions) was a cancelled order by a large distributor. It was sold for only $15.30 per kg, with a minimum order of 100 kg. Yume often have hot smoked salmon and much more - diverted from supermarkets and even major airlines.



This cream cheese recently featured in War on Waste (click the link to see the segment). It was rescued by Dianne's Dips, who purchased 13 tonnes of it. Quality surplus cream cheese. Otherwise destined for landfill.

Up until now, Yume has mostly on-sold products in very large quantities, which has made it harder for smaller business to use the service. They now offer products where they can with small minimum orders.

Obviously what's for sale depends on what has been recently rescued, but there is often meat pies, salmon, fresh meat, crumbled raspberries, pork scotch + shoulder, walnuts & much more!

If you or any business - bar, caterer, restaurant or even a boarding school - or you know one who can use an ever changing list of surplus produce, let them know about Yume by simply tagging them on Yume's social media page or sending them a link. All they need to do is join and enjoy.

Apart from saving a ton of money, together we can eliminate the 98% of commercial food that still goes to waste in Australia every year.

Of the 3.9 million tonnes of quality food discarded by the Australian food manufacturing sector each year, between 400,000 and 600,000 tonnes of edible food could be rescued.

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