The BBC’s Hairy Bikers gave Linda McWatt’s ‘Waist Not Want Not’ cauliflower soup the thumbs up on BBC2’s Great British Food Revival, aired yesterday evening. The programme focuses on the humble cauliflower and Linda was interviewed by the Bikers about its nutritional value and the idea behind her soup.

In response to industry concerns about food waste, Linda developed a healthy cauliflower soup in conjunction with local vegetable processor Marshalls of Butterwick. Marshalls estimate that waste from broccoli and cauliflower floretting operations is in excess of 1000 tonnes per month.

The BBC programme focused on the humble cauliflower and Linda was interviewed by the Bikers about its nutritional value and the idea behind her soup. Linda has also developed a broccoli soup using stalks that would normally be wasted. Both recipes use Lincolnshire ingredients— Lincolnshire Poacher and Cote Hill Blue cheese— due to consumer interest in provenance, local produce and food miles.

The chilled soup market estimated at £511 million in 2009 (Mintel Soup-UK 2010). Other soup manufacturers use vegetable off-cuts in their recipes. The challenge is in informing and marketing the soup to consumers as utilising food which would otherwise be wasted so they choose these soups based on environmental concerns (similar to Fair-Trade).

The soups have generated a huge amount of interest. The University has been involved with Lincolnshire County Council’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign and are included in ‘The Food Lovers Cookbook. Recipes and tips from Lincolnshire’.

New Product Development technical services offered at the Holbeach Campus include all stages of product development from recipe formulations and scale-ups, food labelling requirements and nutritional information.