Jenny Costa: fighting food waste & finding Rubies
Who: Jenny Costa is the founder & CEO of Rubies in the Rubble, a food brand that makes condiments & relishes with fruit and veg that would have gone to waste.
Why: Jenny’s pioneering company is saving fruit and veg from ending in landfill, and her plant-based condiments are absolutely delicious!
Favourite veggie dish: “One of our family staples is a dinner of vegetarian haggis - a nut loaf - with loads of veg. I have a julienne cutter and it’s become my go-to for making amazing salads: I slice up carrots, courgette, beetroot and more - it’s so great!”
1. Let’s start from the very beginning - can you tell me about your family and upbringing?
When my father was 25 he decided he wanted to be a pig farmer. He left London and bought a run-down cottage with his best friend. The farm brought them close to the local community and the land. It was a simple and content life. A few years later, my father met my mother at a party in London, and together they decided to move to Scotland’s west coast.
My mother is an artist and a gardener, so sustainability was always at the heart of our home. She would use every last bit of produce from our veg patch, turning any excess into chutneys, jams and pickles. My parents were always around and really close. They taught us we could be anything we wanted to be.
After graduating with a degree in pure maths from Edinburgh, I followed my friends to London where I started working for a hedge fund.
Left: Rubies in the Rubble Relishes. Right: Mushroom Red Pepper Tart. Source @RubiesInTheRubble
“More children need to be exposed to cooking from scratch and the freedom to express creativity through food.”
2. What type of food did you eat growing up?
A mix of things. We had our own lambs, chickens and even a pig. We ate everything we had on the farm: the meat we had and the produce from mum’s garden. My sister and I would cycle down to the dairy and get things like milk and cheese locally.
We always had a cooking rota in the house which included us children. Each week we set fun challenges, like feeding the whole family for a fiver or using only ingredients from the farm. We really dedicated time to food as a family: it was always exciting to experiment and create. This is one of the reasons I find cooking relaxing to this day: I enjoy the process and creativity.
More children need to be exposed to cooking from scratch and the freedom to express creativity through food. Food was always at the heart of my family, but most people don’t get the opportunity to learn about and explore food.
“We need to protect food as a precious resource and truly value it as such.”
3. How do you feel about eating meat today?
I think that if you eat meat you need to be comfortable with the process. The cycle of the farm felt natural. From a sustainability point of view not all crops grow everywhere: in Scotland - for example - we can only really accommodate grazing.
I believe you need a mix of livestock and agriculture in balance, while recognising that meat should be a treat and that where it comes from matters. At the moment meat is not priced to reflect its value nor real cost. A family might be willing to spend £20 on a pizza but not £20 on a chicken. That £20 chicken would give so much more than the pizza (leftovers, broth etc.), but we don’t understand this. We need to protect food as a precious resource and truly value it as such.
Just two generations ago our grandparents didn’t waste a single thing. Today, we waste one third of the food we produce globally, and in the UK up to 60% of that food waste is completely avoidable. If you consider that we’ll need to double the food supply to feed 10B by 2050, you can see we have a big problem on our hands.
Left: Garlicky Winter Salad. Right: Rubies in the Rubble Plant-Based Mayo. Source @RubiesInTheRubble
“This waste made me think about my mom - the preserves, chutneys, relishes, jams and cordials - all her traditional ways of preserving fruit and veg.”
4. How did the idea for Rubies first come to you?
During my time at the hedge fund I came across an article in the Evening Standard about bin divers. It mentioned that supermarkets were locking their bins to avoid people digging up food that had been thrown out. This opened my eyes to the realities of food that is perfectly good but going to waste.
It was November 2010, and I couldn’t understand why nobody was talking about it. I started googling food waste and researching the topic - I became obsessed with finding out more. The next day I set an early alarm and headed down to New Covent Garden Market to see for myself. There were pallets of beans from Kenya being discarded or wasted: the beans might not have had the exact shelf-life needed by big supermarkets, or maybe they had little imperfections.
This waste made me think about my mom - the preserves, chutneys, relishes, jams and cordials - all her traditional ways of preserving fruit and veg. You can take any veg, process it, and transform it into something delicious that has 2 more years of life. I handed in my notice at the hedge fund in February 2011 and spent a year trialling my first products at Borough Market before officially launching Rubies in the Rubble in 2012.
5. How do you go about sourcing this “excess” or “waste” fruit and veg?
We work with large-scale farms that supply major supermarkets. They have large forecasted demand so are most likely to have large “waste”. Sometimes a supermarket might reject fruit or veg if it doesn’t have the right shelf-life. We team up with these farmers and take that “rejected” veg. In the case of our vegan mayo we work with hummus manufacturers who provide the aquafaba*.
Our chutneys and relishes are made with fruit and veg always available in supermarkets. We produce in large batches when there is lots of “waste” produce so we can be sure to have enough product year-round. In instances where we have lots of supply we will convert the aquafaba into a powder and our pears into puree, so they’re ready to use once we go into production. By making these ingredients shelf-stable we can guarantee Rubies is always available in stores.
Left: Sweet Potato Falafel, Right: Rubies in the Rubble Plant-based Chilli Mayo. Source @RubiesInTheRubble
“We brought the Rubies lens to ketchup by swapping pureed pears for sugar to sweeten the ketchup, creating something really delicious, waste-reducing, and a little healthier too.”
6. What’s the trickiest fruit or veg you’ve worked with so far?
Bananas! We have a banana ketchup, and bananas are notoriously hard to work with. They are the single most wasted fruit, and when they rot they actually emit lots of methane: a double whammy of wasted resources plus emissions. For this reason it was important for us to create a product using bananas. The challenge is that young bananas end up tasting starchy and have the texture of wallpaper, and old bananas are very sugary and turn runny. It was a real challenge!
7. What product are you most proud of?
Probably our ketchup - it took us a year and a half to develop! We always wanted to venture into ketchup, but knew it would be difficult given there is a clear nation’s favourite. This product couldn’t stray from the original too much: it needed to taste and do exactly what people expect from any other ketchup. We asked ourselves, how do we create the biggest impact? Ketchup is (at best) only 10% tomato, then mostly water and sugar. We brought the Rubies lens to ketchup by swapping pureed pears for sugar to sweeten the ketchup, creating something really delicious, waste-reducing, and a little healthier too. This is now our hero SKU and has had a real impact on our business.
Left: Smokey beans on toast. Right: Rubies in the Rubble Ketchup bottles and dispenser. Source @RubiesInTheRubble
8. Any tips on how people can reduce their food waste?
There is never a good reason to waste food in our homes! Three things we can do:
Know what we have in the fridge at all times
Use the freezer! It’s a great way to reduce waste. With bread (for example) simply slice it, put it in the freezer and toast when you need it.
Be creative. Have leftover wine? Use your ice cube tray to freeze it and use in stocks or soups when needed.
We need to transform the way we see food from being a disposable good to a precious resource. “Leftovers” is an ugly word, we need to feel excited by the opportunity to get creative with our food.
9. If you could give one piece of advice on how to achieve health in its physical and emotional forms, what would it be?
Eat in season and drink warm water. Follow nature’s rhythms, there is a reason why different veg is in season at different times: leafy greens are great in the spring and hearty root veg in the winter.
* Aquafaba: The dense liquid that is created by cooking pulses such as chickpeas, found in most canned products. When whipped, it displays some of the same properties as egg whites, so it is commonly used as a vegan substitute in cooking and baking.
