Food Waste

To help fight climate change, we’re fighting food waste 

Food waste has a huge impact on the environment. We’re committed to eliminating it everywhere we work, from our cocoa farm to our factory, stores and cafes. 

We don’t like to see anything go to waste, especially food. But globally, the food industry accounts for around 30% of the world’s total energy consumption and about 22% of total greenhouse gas emissions.   Too much of that goes into making food that just ends up getting thrown away. In fact, if global food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China.  Every year, around a third of all the food that’s produced just ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling because of poor transportation and harvesting practices.   In the UK, we waste around 10.2 million tonnes of food every year, adding up to more than 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. At Hotel Chocolat, our pledge is to stop waste wherever we can.

Turning waste into resources 

Whether we’re in the kitchen, factory or on our farm, we’re always inspired by the Japanese concept of mottainai – ‘don’t waste what is valuable’.  So we’re always looking for ways to eliminate food waste and find new uses for things that might have gone in the bin.   Over the years, we’ve dreamed up lots of new ideas for recycling food waste into a resource, instead using it to make new things as part of a ‘circular economy’. Here are some of them: 

• We’re recycling 100% of any food waste by-products from our chocolate factory production. We do this either by putting them into our Ugly But Good bags (filled with imperfect but delicious chocolates) or they’re added to animal feed.
• We keep all the shells we separate from cacao beans in the chocolate-making process and use them to infuse our Cacao Gin and Salted Caramel Vodka Liqueur.
• On our cacao farm in Saint Lucia, we keep all the old cocoa pods after harvesting to make a world-class compost to nourish newly planted cacao trees.
• At our Rabot Hotel in Saint Lucia, we also use the fruity, lychee-like pulp gathered from cacao pods to invigorate cocktails, soft drinks, even our beer. We even keep leftover cacao nibs for use in wellness treatments at our open-air rejuvenation centre. 

What’s in our Ugly But Good Bags? 

We have high visual standards for our chocolates and some don’t come out quite as pretty as we’d like, but they’re just as delicious, made with the same high-quality ingredients. Instead of throwing them away, we offer them at discounted rates through our Ugly But Good bags, featuring collections of solid chocolates in milk, white, caramel and dark, boozy chocolates and fruit and nut. Looks aren’t everything!

In the UK, we waste around 10.2 million tonnes of food every year, resulting in more than 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gases emissions  Each year, around one-third of all food produced is wasted, rotting in bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling due to poor transportation and harvesting  The food sector accounts for around 30% of the world’s total energy consumption and accounts for around 22% of total greenhouse gas emissions.