Challenger to Watch: Misfit Juicery
For feeding people, not trash cans
When you don’t have resources, you need to be resourceful. What if those resources already exist though, but are just going straight to landfill?
That’s the win-win opportunity seized by a new breed of eco-conscious food waste brands including Toast Beer, Canvas Barley Milk and this year’s Challenger to Watch - Misfit Juicery.
Misfit Juicery sells juice made from 70-80% wasted fruit. Not just the wonky fruit and veg deemed too ugly for the grocery shelves, but also the by-products of processed produce like baby carrots and watermelon squares.
Did you know baby carrots are just made from cutting down normal sized carrots? I genuinely didn’t. Or that 20 billion pounds of fruit and vegetables go unharvested or unsold every year in the U.S? That’s a hell of a lot of wasted resource.
“When life gives you lemons you don’t ask for prettier lemons. You make juice.”
Misfit takes this perfectly edible produce and turns it into cold-pressed juice, the remaining pulp is then composted.
Whilst currently small, this is a company with big ambitions and the wind in their sails. Last year, Misfit underwent a rebrand, the founders were tipped as one of Forbes' "30 under 30" and they joined the Chobani food incubator.
Misfit is now in the early stages of a seed round which could reach between $1.5m - $4m to help fund a bigger mission to become 'Misfit Foods' and “fix the waste happening in the agricultural sector".
With so much unnecessary trash comes a whole lot of potential treasure. This year could be the year the misfits go mainstream.