Squished adds new products to Climate Positive range
The Climate Positive Food Company who pledged in Summer 2021 to create a range of snacks using only surplus fruit that had been rescued from British farms, has released Squished to work towards a more eco-conscious and community-driven way of enjoying healthy food.
With the ‘No Berry Left Behind’ campaign, Squished pledged to ‘rescue’ 25,000kg of berries destined for landfill from local British farms. As of September 2022, Squished has now achieved that monumental goal and is setting its sights on a new one – to rescue a staggering 1 million kg of fruit by 2024.
Also adding to the ever-growing rescue family is a brand-new product perfect for keen bakers and cereal-toppers, the Rescue Blueberry Pieces (with a whopping 250 rescue berries packed in!). Great for adding flavour and nutrients to recipes and snacks.
The range has products that are vegan, gluten free and nut-free. They are ideally suited for snacking, baking, children’s lunch boxes or simply as a delicious treat.
With the cost-of-living crisis and environmental challenges we currently face as a nation, having an economical, sustainability focused brand that supports local farmers and provides healthy snacks is vital.
Squished’s founder and director, Paul McCulloch explained there is an increased public awareness of the effects the food industry has on the environment, meaning more customers are actively looking for products that will not only be good for their health, but also good for the planet.
“That’s why the more Squished snacks that are sold, the more fruit can be rescued,” McCulloch said.
Climate Positive Food uses drying technology to preserve the natural flavours and nutrients of the rescue fruit.
The company was established in 2021 by a group of sustainability-driven local food producers in Chichester, who found it unacceptable that hundreds of tonnes of fruit never reached the customers they were grown for, as they were surplus to the needs of the market. They wanted to change that and create products that would leave as light a carbon footprint on the planet as possible. The result is a range of products that are nutritious, credible and delicious.
Squished includes a range of energy balls (available in individual packs and sharing tubs), fruit flapjacks, fruit pieces and jams.
Squished products can be found in a range of retailers in-store and online, including: Amazon, Select Co Op Stores, Daylesford Organic Farms, Cowdray Farm Shop, Refilled Chichester, Runcton Farm Shop, and The Packaging Free Larder.
For more information on the range and its sustainability story, visit the website here: www.wearesquished.co.uk
The Climate Positive Food Company was formed by three friends, from very different professional backgrounds, who were equally dismayed about the huge amount of berries that one of its businesses (a fruit farm) was producing but not able to sell. After initial meetings to ascertain how they could help solve this, they built a small processing factory to create a range of snacks under the brand name, Squished.
The business is located on a berry farm so there is direct access to hundreds of tonnes of surplus fruit as soon as it needs rescuing. Squished uses technology to dry the rescue fruit and make it into a very adaptable shelf-stable ingredient and product. The company said the process is scalable and will enable Squished to rescue significantly more in the future.
The Climate Positive Food Company is very confident that the extremely high percentage of real rescue fruit in the snacks (no concentrates or flavourings here) and the benefits thereof makes Squished completely unique.
The fruit rescue process was developed in collaboration with leading experts in air particle research and control process systems.
The drying rooms in the Chichester-based factory are state-of-the-art and employ algorithmic humidity control with constantly adapting windspeed and temperature. The technology ultimately allows Squished to rescue, dry and preserve any number of different fruits and vegetables.
