Fyffes are Cream of the Crop

Zero waste foods brand, Cream Of The Crop, has announced an official sustainability-focused partnership with Fyffes – one of the world’s leading distributors of tropical produce, and currently Europe’s largest importer of Fairtrade bananas.

Fyffes actively integrates sustainable practices into all areas of its operation to respond to climate change and ensure that natural resources are efficiently managed, conserved and enhanced for future generations. The company has set itself a global target of reducing food waste by as much as 80% by 2030 and the new exclusive partnership with Cream Of The Crop will go some way to helping Fyffes achieve this. 

Cream Of The Crop helps battle food waste by using surplus ingredients that would otherwise end up in landfill or, in this instance, be converted into biofuel to create a range of delicious zero waste products. Each month Fyffes will donate up to two tonnes of perfectly ripe bananas, only deemed as surplus because they don’t meet the supermarkets’ stringent specification criteria, from its Ripening Centre in Balbriggan, Dublin to Giselle Makinde’s pioneering enterprise.

In order to be able to store and process this vast quantity of fresh fruit and meet growing demand for her products, Founder, Giselle, has had to relocate her zero waste business to new larger premises for the second time in less than a year. From Cream Of The Crop’s new state-of-the-art 1,700 sq. ft production facility on the Ballycoolin Road, Dublin 11, Giselle estimates that she and her passionate team will have the capability of saving twenty-four tonnes of surplus food from landfill in 2022 – three times as much as in their previous home on Cork Street, Dublin 8.

To boost her chances of achieving her ambitious targets for this year, Giselle has launched a Kickstarter.com crowdfunding campaign – titled ‘Bananitas – made with surplus bananas’ – and is looking for the support of her customers and sustainably-focused consumers to help raise €14,500. The crowdfunding campaign, which will run for 30 days ending on Thursday 16th June, will help fund the purchase of the specialist equipment (dehydrators and chocolate coating machines). These will enable Cream Of The Crop to process three times as many bananas in 2022 as last year and launch a brand new zero waste snack called ‘Bananitas’, inspired by Giselle’s childhood memories of growing up in Brazil.

Bananitas, healthy dried banana bites coated in 70% dark chocolate, which are gluten-free, vegan friendly and high in fibre, will become the first product in the Cream Of The Crop range to be available for nationwide delivery.

In return for their financial support, fans of the brand will be able to select from a range of limited-edition Cream Of The Crop merchandise and money can’t buy experience rewards, including spending a day one-on-one with Giselle to create your own batch of bespoke-flavoured gelato. These rewards will be fulfilled once the €14,500 target has been achieved with an expected delivery date of August 2022.

Rewards:

€25.00 – 6 x packs of Bananitas with shipping to anywhere in the world

€40.00 – 10 x packs of Bananitas with shipping to anywhere in the world

€50.00 – 10 x packs of Bananitas plus 1 x Cream Of The Crop-branded limited-edition ‘Zero Waste Fighter’ fan t-shirt with free shipping to anywhere in Ireland

€75.00 – 15 x packs of Bananitas plus 1 x Cream Of The Crop-branded limited-edition ‘Zero Waste Fighter’ fan t-shirt with free shipping to anywhere in Ireland

€100.00 – 25 x packs of Bananitas, 6 x 300ml gelato/sorbets of your choice, and 1 x Cream

Of The Crop-branded limited-edition ‘Zero Waste Fighter’ fan t-shirt with free shipping to

Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow or Meath

€200.00 – A year’s supply of Bananitas (x52 packs), 5 x litres of gelatos/sorbets of your choice, plus 1 x Cream Of The Crop-branded limited-edition ‘Zero Waste Fighter’ fan t-shirt with free shipping to Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow or Meath

€350.00 – 70 x packs of Bananitas, 3 x Cream Of The Crop-branded limited-edition ‘Zero Waste Fighter’ fan t-shirts (with free shipping to Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow or Meath), and a money can’t buy experience at Cream Of The Crop spending a day one-on-one with Founder, Giselle Makinde, creating and producing your own bespoke gelato

Cream Of The Crop’s full range of over 30 different flavoured zero waste gelatos and sorbets are available to purchase online at www.creamofthecropgelato.com. They can be ordered either for collection (Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm) from their premises at the Premier Business Park on the Ballycoolin Road, Dublin 11, or for delivery to counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Wicklow. They are also available from a range of leading independent artisan food stores across the country.