Tried and Supplied aims to help hotels and restaurants source food more sustainably
A new food technology start-up has launched this week with the aim of cutting the number of food miles generated by the UK hospitality industry.
Tried and Supplied is seeking to make hotel and restaurant sourcing strategies more sustainable by providing business owners with a specialised search platform for finding local food producers.
The firm, launched yesterday, comes in response to increasing public concern over food miles and growing numbers of restaurants adopting specialised sustainability and ethical sourcing criteria, according to founder Domini Hogg.
"Built off the back of feedback from major hotels like InterContinental and One Aldwych, Tried and Supplied is designed to help pick out smaller producers well suited to the hotel/restaurant location as well as any specific selection criteria including strict ethical and sustainable sourcing policies," she said.
A 2018 survey from the Sustainable Restaurant Association found that more than half of diners are willing to pay more if they know the restaurant is investing in sustainability, and consumers are increasingly demanding more information on the provenance of their food.
As concern over the impact of shipping exotic ingredients into the UK grows, some establishments are taking radical action. In December the Wild Strawberry Café on Peterley Manor Farm in Buckinghamshire said it would no longer serve avocados for environmental reasons.
"At a time when climate change concerns have never been more real, transporting ingredients in fuel guzzling planes from Central and South America, Africa and beyond just to satisfy our whim for the latest food trend, when we have a plentiful supply of perfectly delicious, nutritious food on our doorstep, is just plain wrong," the café said in an Instagram post announcing its decision.