Sweet success: Giving unloved fruit a Second Squeeze

There are few things more disappointing for a farmer than growing produce that can’t be sold because of aesthetic imperfections. Food waste is an issue that affects many primary producers, but with better technology and some entrepreneurial minds, that may all soon become very avoidable.

Second Squeeze, as the name suggests, is a business offering a second life to perfectly good food, that would otherwise be destined for landfill.

Co-founder, Brent Beauchamp says waste also happens in hospitality and hotels – so there’s a huge demand for better utilising unwanted food.

Second Squeeze turns produce like lemons and strawberries into syrup, bananas into flour and hot crossed buns into liqueur. The applications are inventive and seemingly endless.

“We see things like conjoined bananas, which are absolutely beautiful on the inside but unfortunately, they get identified as ugly,” Brent explains.

“We can turn them into something that has a tangible value.”

Our banana powder is gluten free and has a wonderful taste and texture. My mum’s a celiac, so she loves it.

Brent says some customers with wheat intolerances are using the banana powder as a flour substitute.

“I’m not a food guy, but when foodies look at these things, the makeup of conventional wheat flour and banana flour are very similar. The dried banana flour actually has a smell like when you open a box of teabags,” he laughs.

Endless opportunities

Brent encourages anyone wondering about the need for these products, to carefully have a look through the supermarket aisles. He’s been blown away to see how many products have either a syrup or powder base – things like cordials, ice creams, yoghurts, cheese, cakes.

“Anything in a box on a shelf has some sort of flavours.”

We’re able to offer something that has no colours, preservatives, or additives and is made using processes that were discovered hundreds of years ago.

Second Squeeze has reimagined those processes and added a modern-day twist. Cutting edge science is helping to refine those methods in collaboration with the CSIRO.

“Our only issue now is letting the world know that we exist because there’s nothing out there like it,” he shares.

Second Squeeze founders believe it’s a win-win situation for farmers, making some money from produce that consumers wouldn’t buy in its current form.

“We feel their pain because it’s their time, their resources, their effort. At the end of the day, their bottom line.”

One of the start-up’s most successful partnerships to date has been with OzHarvest. Both logos are emblazoned on cans of drink produced by Second Squeeze, the money from sales going directly to helping OzHarvest deliver a meal to someone in need. It’s a partnership that won the gaze of royalty when King Charles and Queen Camilla enjoyed a meet and greet with charity founder Ronni Kahn.

“There she was showing Queen Camilla our cans of drink!”

That was an opportunity to let the world know what we’re doing. Up until then, we’d been sitting back.

Brent says the highlight for him has been seeing farmers’ and consumers’ eyes light up when they sample the Second Squeeze delights – now he wants the world to light up at the thought of giving ugly food, a beautiful future.

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