“Approved Foods is like the TK Maxx of food and drink. You never know what you’re going to get. We only deal in best before dates which is a guide to the optimum quality, it’s not the same as use by,” says founder Dan Cluderay.
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With a background in technology and system management Dan started the website which now has over a quarter million registered customers.
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“I think there’s a lack of education about what best before dates really mean. I think the reason why we waste food is because we don’t understand what these dates mean. The education behind it – the fact a chicken that’s past its ‘use by’ date is being confused with a tin of soup past its ‘best before’ date leads to waste.”
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Approved Foods shipped around 9.8 million items last year. With the average person saving around £70 on every shop. Since appearing on the ITV programme Bargain Fever Britain, the business has attracted customers looking to save some money on their weekly shops.
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“We don’t get any of the complaints that you think we would selling food past it ‘best before’ date,” says Dan. He plans to help educate the country on the difference between ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates, hoping this understanding will lead to a decrease in food wastage.
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“If I’m dreaming I see Approved Food being a champion of education and yet being a business that employs people and generates work. Hopefully years to come we will stand for education, innovation, and known for doing things differently.” However, Dan says there’s a misconception about supermarkets wasting food and a bigger problem exists higher up the production chain.
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“Supermarkets want 75% of the life of the product when they receive it. So, you’ve got a tin of soup with a year date, supermarkets want it with 9 months life span. As soon it goes under that they won’t buy it. They need the time to be able to sell it and push it through their systems, and they are great at managing stock.
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“Where I know a lot of the waste happens is further up the supply chain. It’s not with one bag or one box it’s with hundreds or thousands of cases of products. Even worse is in the manufacturing process because somethings not made to a certain standard those things end up wasted.”
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Approved Foods works with brand owners, manufacturers and retailers from all over Europe to try and resell products that would otherwise be wasted.
“We’re not backed by any big funding. Nobody would lend us any money when we started at all. We’ve really had to prove ourselves by understanding what customers want.”
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Appearing on Dragons Den with his business partner Andy Needham back in 2015, the pair walked away with no investments. Now, turning over around £4 million a year, it seems Dan didn’t need the Dragons’ fire to spread his business across the UK. Approved Foods now runs out of a warehouse in Sheffield which is the size of a football field.
Best before bites
How entrepreneur Dan Cluderay can help you reduce your food wastage...
By Samantha Stewart
Dan Cluderay, Founder of Approved Foods
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“A lot still needs to be done” says Dan on the wastage crisis in the UK. “The reality is the biggest waste comes from the home.”
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Household waste increased by 4.4 percent between 2012 and 2015 despite government initiatives to cut it by 5 percent. With better education and businesses like Approved Foods gaining more customers everyday hopefully each household can start to make a little difference. However, it will take a shift in the country’s mentality on food to tackle the increasing problem of wastage in the UK.
Dan Cluderay and his partner Andy Needham
We’ve all done it...
It’s a cold Saturday afternoon, you’re hungry. You traipse into the kitchen. Open the cupboard and you spot it, a tin of soup, tomato – your favourite. Can opener at the ready you can’t wait to delve into a delicious hot bowl of soup. That’s when you notice it. - The small black numbers stamped on the silver lid: 20/12/2017.
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It’s estimated the UK wastes around seven million tons of food every year. With ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates becoming increasingly stricter and the fear of illness looming over us, tin after tin of soup gets chucked.
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Dan Cluderay was a man with a plan and launched Approved Foods in 2009 with one idea – to sell short stocked products or food past it’s best before date to consumers at a discounted price.
