The Group Behind "Sorted" Aims to Revolutionize Food with Innovative Solutions

As members of the group "Sorted," Ben and his team are passionate about exploring new food innovations and uncovering tools that will help people cook and eat smarter. Their community-driven approach ensures that everything they do starts with their audience, making them a unique voice in the world of food technology.

Today's Experiment: Exploring Sustainable Food Solutions

Ben recently attended an event where he met young entrepreneurs who are working towards creating a sustainable future for food. The event showcased incredible innovations and ideas that caught his attention. He brought some of these products back to his kitchen, where James, their chef, and Barry, their normal guy, would provide their honest reactions.

The First Product: Rice Inc.'s Sustainable Rice Solution

Ben's first product was from Rice Inc., a company that is working towards reducing food waste by drying rice grains. It turns out that 30% of all the rice grown is wasted before it reaches the supply chain, with 26 million tonnes being lost annually. This is a staggering amount, considering that 4 billion people on the planet eat rice every day. Rice Inc. runs a laundromat for rice, where farmers can take their paddy to be dried, stored, or sold at a later date.

The Benefits of Sustainable Rice

The use of this sustainable rice solution has several benefits. Not only does it reduce food waste but also supports local farmers and the environment. This innovative approach to reducing waste is just one example of how technology can make a positive impact on our food systems.

Exploring Banana Ketchup as a Solution to Food Waste

Next, Ben and his team tried banana ketchup from Fabrico's friend, who brought it to share with the group. The suggestion was inspired by patatas bravas, but unfortunately, the bravas were forgotten! Despite this, the banana ketchup was surprisingly delicious and a great alternative to traditional tomato ketchups.

Banana Ketchup: Not a New Thing?

While banana ketchup may not be a new concept, Fabrico's company is doing something innovative by saving the bananas that never make it to market. These bananas might be crooked, overripe, or under-ripe, but they're still edible and can be transformed into this tasty condiment.

The Scope of Food Waste in the UK

According to Ben, 1.4 million bananas are thrown away every day in the UK alone. This is a staggering amount, considering that bananas are a nutritious fruit that can provide essential vitamins and minerals. The global impact of food waste is even more significant, with Brazil being one of the countries affected by this issue.

The Tasting Experience: Banana Ketchup Flavors

Ben and his team were offered a variety of flavors from Fabrico's banana ketchup, including mango, pineapple, and Mr. Jackfruit. While they enjoyed the taste, James was not a fan of the flavor, describing it as "quite more-ish" with notes of apple, pear, and custard. The rest of the group found the flavors to be delicious, making this banana ketchup an appealing addition to their pantry.

The Pricing of Banana Ketchup

The price of Fabrico's banana ketchup was surprisingly reasonable, with a jar selling for £4.50. While not as cheap as regular tomato ketchups, it is clear that the unique ingredient and production process make this product stand out from the crowd.

Conclusion

As "Sorted," Ben and his team continue to explore innovative solutions to food waste and sustainability. From sustainable rice grains to delicious banana ketchup, they are committed to uncovering tools that will help people cook and eat smarter. Their community-driven approach ensures that everything they do starts with their audience, making them a unique voice in the world of food technology.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- We are Sorted.A group of mates who have your backwhen it comes to all things food.From cooking battles to gadget reviews.- Ben, it's not worth it!- And cookbook challengesto a midweek meal Packs app.- Crack your eggs, bake.- We uncover thetools that'll help us allcook and eat smarter.Join our community, whereeverything we do starts with you.(upbeat music)- Now, you guys know thatwe love to put new foodinnovations to the testhere in our kitchen.Today, no different.Typically, I might find themas I travel or go to exposand more importantly from your comments,but today, all theproducts we're looking athave come from one event thatI was invited to speak ata couple of weeks ago.Basically an event thatshowcases incredible,young entrepreneurial mindswho are doing incredible thingsaround the sustainable future for food.It interested my geeky mind,so I thought I'd bring themhere to see what James, ourchef, and Barry, our normal,have to say about them.- Why don't I get invitedto talk at events?(laughs)Please, lift the cloche.(gasp)- Now you know how this format is.- It's gonna be one of those.- Lots of strange things in bowls.- Is it strange though?That is rice.They are rice grains.Grains of rice.- Shall I tell himwhat it is or-?- What are you talking about?- That is clearly not rice, Barry.- Sorry, am I missing something?- Is it, Mike?- Do you know what it is?- Course it's rice.(beep)I hope!(Barry laughs)- So this is rice from Rice Inc.- So the thing here is4 billion people on the planeteat rice, on average, once a day,and yet 30% of all the ricegrown is wasted long before itgets into the supply chain.And that's 26 million tonnes of rice.And that can go an awful long way.- It's a problem I had no idea existed.- Well so technically, theyrun a laundromat for rice.They dry it, so that farmerscan take their paddy,their rice, to them.They can lease their machinesand they dry the rice,so that they're able tothe store it or sell itat a later date, so itdoesn't just get wastedstraight away.- So the reason it'swasted is 'cause it spoils?- Yeah.- In the sun drying process,which is normally like aseven-day process of allowingthe sun to dry the rice beforeyou can take it to market.- Well, we put together a great dish.Ebbers has put together a great dish.This is jasmine rice.- They're also doingthings much closer to home.So even in London,every bag you buy in the UK,they also donate a bag to a food bank.- If I knew I could buy thisrice and I'm contributingto something that's quite important,then I'd feel quite good about myself.- I know what you're thinking though.How much is it incomparison to other rice?- Can't help it, you'veingrained it into us.- in-Grained!- James.- I didn't mean it.- You did, you did mean it.You can do better than that.- As soon as I said itI realised, but I didn't mean it.- That's a two kilo bag.Would you like to guess how much that is?- A fiver?- I'd expect to pay aboutfour pounds for two kilos.- So three pounds a kilo.- Three pounds a kilo, yeah.- So that bag there, two kilos,comes in at eight pounds,which is actually lessthan a bag of premium Tildajasmine rice,which is quite interesting.I was quite surprised by that.- So this is already aprize-winning company.They've won the HultPrize, which was co-hostedby Bill Clinton, the United Nations.It's like the world's mostsustainable food prize.So they're obviously onto a good thing,and if it can scale, thenthere is the potentialto start to eek at that26 million tonnes of ricethat's wasted, and that willfeed an awful lot of people.- It'll definitely make methink next time I'm buying rice.- Ready for another?- Please.- Lift the cloche- This one, I will beinterested in your reaction.- It's banana.- Banana ketchup.- It's like banana barbecue sauce.- You've said it, it's aketchup. It's banana ketchup.This is for Feitosa Gourmet.It is an excellent way of using up.I nearly said inappropriatebut that's not the wordI was looking for.Unusable bananas.- What's an inappropriate banana?- I dunno!The favourite suggestion ofFabrico's friend who brought methat very jar, patatas bravas.- He's done the patatas.- And forgotten the bravas.(laughs)- They're really nice.Really, really nice actually.And for someone who doesn'tparticularly like bananas,that is a compliment.- I'm impressed!- That's great.Banana ketchup is not anew thing though, is it?It's like, that is a thing.- This kind of solution issomething that the companyis doing to save the onesthat never make it to market,because they're crooked, orthe wrong shape, or over-ripe,or under-ripe, or a bit squished.And then also, there arebananas wasted in the UK.How many do you reckon we waste in the UK?Every day.- 26?- 26 bananas a day?- Thousand.26,000.- I dunno, two million a day.Wait, 100,000-75,000, 50,000, 75,000.- Stop back-tracking!Be confident.- 75,000.- 1.4 million bananas arethrown away each and every dayin the UK.- I said two million!- That doesn't count- Is that not disgusting?- I said, I said 2 million.- That is insane, isn't it?So clearly, not just in the UK.Brazil, globally, thisis an issue and a problemthat requires solving.Would you buy it over other ketchups?Can you see it havinga place in your pantry?- Yeah, it's something new.It's delicious.I wouldn't use it all the time,but it's a great option to have.- I agree.I'd buy it in addition to ketchup.Tomato ketchup.- How much do you thinka jar of this sells for?- £4.50.- Fiver.- Would you both be willing to payboth of those prices?- Not combined, individually.- Yes.Would you, however, be willingto pay £2.68 for that jar?- Yes.- Current exchange rate.(laughs)- Well, that soundslike an overwhelmingall-round success.- On par price with aregular tomato ketchup,but saving bananas.- From a man who doesn't-- It's good.- I don't buy bananas.I don't like bananas,but I do quite like that ketchup.- Well, we've only gotanother one for you.- If you sniff it, lick it, nibble it,you might get closerto knowing what it is.- (whispers) They're not gonna get this.- Quite bitter, isn't it?- Certainly a little bit apple-y.- Apple?What is it?- I don't know.- It's really sweet.Is it like butternut squash or something?- Hang of shame of James' head there.- He didn't like that guess.- What is it?- They do a number of flavours.Mango, pineapple, but this one,is Mr. Jackfruit.- So James, you're not a fan?- It's quite more-ish,and it tastes a bit,a bit apple-y, a bitpear-y, and a bit custard-y.- It's almost vanilla-ry.- Yeah.- Phew, I went out on a limb there!(laughs)- You heard custard andjust your mind just playedword association.- Yeah, I expected him to just go:-\"No, you mug.\"- So Jali Fruit is 100%handcrafted by rural women farmersall over the world.No added sugar, nopreservatives, just bold flavourpacked with the vitamins and sun dried.The bit I find fascinating, isthe average local daily wagein most of these cooperativesis two dollars a day,but Jali Fruit are paying $15 a day.And if you've got a phoneon you, there's a QR codeon the front, and the greatthing is, every single bagcan be traced back to thecommunity in which it came from.- That is cool, isn't it?- 100% transparencyaround the provenanceand the communities it's helping.- That's really cool.- So each of the productsthat you're reviewing todayare finalists in acompetition for the eventthat Ebbers spoke at.So these have beenthrough rounds of testing,judging, research and duediligence, so that we know whatthey're claiming isactually robust and true.So that's why this isreally exciting to me.I think this sounds amazing.- You've also got mango-ramaand party pineapple.- Ooh, J, what's your funfact on the back of your packet?- Mango trees reproduce by themselves.It takes two to tango, one to mango.(laughs)- Sounds like my life!(laughs)If you buy four packs, that'stwo pounds in weight of fruitthat's saved, that wouldotherwise have been wasted,and one woman's livelihood transformed.How much for four packs of fruit?- £12 for four.- £15.£15.- 16.50.So it's $21.- So just over four pounds per bag.Would you buy that?- We already buy quitea lot of dried mango.Love a dried fruit, and I thinkthey're similar sort of bagsfor about the halfprice, but I have no ideahow they're sourced.- I can imagine thatprices out 90% of people,- It's almost irrespectiveof whether you likethe product or not.The company itself aredoing something amazingthat let's just hope catches on.- Yeah, it's way bigger than that.It's the whole... foodshould not be this cheap.- But we're conditioned intosaying that's too expensivefor us, as we just have.- You're kind of right.The food system's a bit brokenand companies like Jali Fruitare breaking that.- Let's finish with apotential game changer.- Oh really?- And we've had some game changers.- Stop it, that's nothow you life a cloche.- I did.I think I know what this is.It's sweetener.It's really nice.Quite cooling as well.- Cooling and metallic.It's like putting a coldmarble in your mouth.- You're right!Is that nice?- No.(Barry laughs)But I can imagine you're notsupposed to eat it like this.- So this is xylitol.So it is an alcohol andtherefore, like menthol,chemically has that cooling,but this particularstuff is made by Xilinat,a Mexican company,who are doing somepretty incredible things.The founder of Xilinatcame up with this concept,because in later years, his dadwas diagnosed with diabetes,but refused to change his eating habits.His sister was training tobe a dentist and was seeingthe phenomenal problemswith kids' tooth decayand cavity problems, andthat's two things in his familyinspired him to find a betterway of creating xylitol,which at the time was very expensiveand not particularly sustainable.- How do you make xylitol?- It's often made from birch trees,but often other vegetable matter.However, there's a lot of toxic by-waste.So it's very expensive and it's not great.What Xilinat found is a muchbetter way of producing it,and rather than using vegetablematter that needs growingin the first place,using agricultural waste.This one caught my interestmost, 'cause I just wantedto see how it does behave,so I've created some food.Cinnamon sugar churros, cajeta, cake,homemade jam, and horchata,all using Xilinat.So these are all Sortedrecipes and each case,I've just subbed outthe same weight of sugarfor the same weight of Xilinat- That's where, for me, it'sinteresting if it is a directone-to-one replacement for sugar,but is lower in caloriesand lower in carbohydrates,because of our humongousobesity problem globally.Does that cake taste like cake?- A sweet cakeIt's got a slightlydifferent texture to it,but I can't work out ofthat's the sugar or not.- What kind of cake is it?- Vicky sponge.- Oh right, okay.- I don't know if that's working.Have you tried it?- Yeah, it behaved a littlebit different in the bake.It didn't cream withthe butter the same way.However, once the batter wasfinally finished with the eggsand the flour and everythingelse, it was cake batter.But it's baked differently.- It has a closer texture andit's more like a Madeira cake.- Yeah, it's pasty.- What do you think of the jam?Because I said I did one for one.I actually used halfthe amount in the jam.- Jam's good.- And it's jammy?The consistency is there, it's sweetwith a little bit of tartness.So not only is it 40% lesscalories, 75% less carbohydrate,but it's also half the amount.- How about the churros?So talk to us about how it behaved.- Well, this is just a tossing process.So I just took out the fryerand tossed it in the sugar.I think again, 'causethey are larger granules,it hasn't clung to-- That's my question, yeah.- The churros quite the same.In the cajeta, the greatcolour and the great flavourfrom the sauce, but again,it's not thicken the waythat caramel does, butxylitol does not caramelise.It's not very good inrecipes that you need sugarin liquid form.- Because it's coated on the outside,I'm getting that cooling sensationas well as the sweetness,and that's quite nice.It's something, again, it'sembracing how different it is.- I was gonna say it's not very nice.For me, it doesn't work.It's weird, it tastesweird, it tastes wet.As soon as you dissolve it in a liquid,jam and milk, it's great.- What are your overall thoughts?Like how you responding to it?Do you think it does enough of a job?- I never use sugar.- I'm so sorry, I'm the same.I never have sugar in my house.And if I do, it's areally small little bitand I'll use it for bread and you know,the odd chocolate fondantif I'm feeling fancy.(laughs)- That is so chef-y!- No, its not, it takes 15 minutes!- No 'normal' just rustlesup a chocolate fondant.- I'm not even lying, that happens.- So how much for that bag?- That bag.- Four or five quid?- Eight pounds.- 200 pesos, which equatesto just over eight pounds.Barry Taylor, great guessing!- So a lot more expensive than sugar,but that is partly becauseof its new innovation,and the way they're doingit, and the small scalethey're working at.- If they can make it cost effectivefor health-food cafes, andbrands, and people like that,I can imagine it'll be crazy successful.- Okay, so of the four,which do you think is likelyto make the most differencein the next few years?- I think Rice Inc., because I feel likethey have the best chanceof making a differencein the place that they'vechosen to make a difference.- So like, food wasteseems to sit at the heartof a lot of these problems.The Jali Fruit, the rice, andthe banana ketchup as well.But I'll just go to the onethat I understand the bestand I can, adapting into mylife will be really easy.The banana ketchup onefor me was a stand-out.- That's probably the mostpoignant thing you've said.We all eat three times a day.How often do we actually think about it?- Over to you guys.Which of those productsare your favourite?Who gets your vote?And if you like seeing usdiscuss these food trends,then give the video a likeand we'll make some more.- And we'll make surethat the details of allthe four products and companiesthat we've talked abouttoday are in the link down below,along with links to theevent where you can seethe six other finalists, 10 in total.The Thought for Food finale ishappening on World Food Day.That's October the 16th.Go and check out becausethere's gonna be a winner.(men laughs) No one knows who it is yet.- Yes there is, Ben!- That's the cliffhanger I lent it on.- Before you go, justa quick shout to say thanksto all of you who are usingand sending us your thoughtson our Packs app.We wanted to create atool to help you bossyour mid-week meals,cut down on food waste,and reduce the cost ofyour weekly food shop,and you are helping us do just that.So thank you.We wanna make this as accessibleas possible right now,so if you haven't tried it,you can now for a full monthabsolutely free.The link is in the description box below.And now for the bloop.- I don't know what ricelooks like before it dried.I've just realised.- If you look down that lens and say,\"Oh, it looks like this,\"then I'm sure we'll be ableto find a picture for you.- I don't do that.Jamie does that.- D'you wanna know or not?- He's round there. Wecould get Jamie in to blink.- D'you wanna know or not?- I'll look it up later.(men laughs)\n"