Each year, more than one-third of all food produced worldwide is thrown away. In the Netherlands alone, this amounts to 2 million tons per year. InstockMarket aims to rescue as much food as possible and bring it back into the food chain. Through their Food Rescue Center in Diemen, they collect surpluses and residual flows that are still perfectly usable and offer them to hospitality partners. In this way, they literally put food waste on the map, prevent destruction and contribute to a healthier planet.
Food Waste in Numbers
8% of global CO₂ emissions are caused by food waste. This not only wastes food itself but also precious farmland, energy and water. 39% of this waste occurs at farms and production facilities, long before it ever reaches supermarkets. Often, there's nothing wrong with these products. They're rejected because of their irregular shape or because the harvest was too abundant and the grower cannot sell the excess. Instock sees potential in these residual streams. By working directly with farmers, they intercept these products to supply the hospitality sector.
From Idea to Impact
The idea for Instock emerged in 2014 with three management trainees from Ahold. Selma Seddik, now co-CEO at InstockMarket, explains how she was struck by how much perfectly good food goes to waste daily in supermarkets. “Just before closing time, people still want to buy fresh bread and five minutes later it gets thrown out. Seeing that waste was a wake-up call. That’s when the seed for Instock was planted.”
Together with Freke van Nimwegen and Bart Roetert, she came up with the idea to open a restaurant serving rescued food. This quickly grew to three restaurants, but during the COVID lockdown, they realized they could make more impact by acting as a link between food suppliers and buyers. With support from the DOEN Foundation, they launched a circular wholesale business in Diemen in 2019. This enabled more partners to process the large volumes of surplus food offered to Instock.
Direct Visible Results
Today, InstockMarket receives surplus streams from 200 suppliers and offers them online via instockmarket.nl. Buyers can immediately see how many kilos of food they've saved and how much land, water and CO₂ emissions they’ve spared via a personal impact dashboard. InstockMarket itself aims to rescue 5 million kilos of food each year. They also donate at least 20% of the food to charities, such as the Amsterdam Food Bank.
Tempting Chefs
Selma: “I think it’s really cool that we can now involve more and more people in this behavioral change. Where we used to work with three chefs in our own restaurants, we now supply 700 chefs across different hospitality kitchens in the Netherlands!” To make the transition to this way of cooking easier, Instock offers a wide and varied range of products, including special items like cœur de bœuf tomatoes. They also provide support in creating seasonal menus and organize markets and events to inspire chefs.
Big Ambitions for the Future
If it’s up to Selma, many more great steps lie ahead, such as making delivery vans more sustainable, improving warehouse efficiency and launching the OverschotSpot in 2025. This is a digital platform that matches supply and demand for large residual flows. Instock estimates this could lead to the rescue of 40 million kilos of food by 2026.
And then there’s her personal dream: “How great would it be to live in a world where you don’t have to feel guilty about your consumption behavior? Where the energy you use is green, the food you eat is full of nutrients but doesn’t exhaust the soil. Where you can travel without guilt and pass the world on to future generations in good condition. I believe we’d be much happier that way.”
DOEN Participaties invests in InstockMarket thanks to the players of the Postcode Loterij.
