Dash Water, the brand of sparkling water in the UK made from unwanted fruit and vegetables, will kick off a campaign called Squashed with Love to coincide with the launch of its latest flavour.
The brand will debut its new raspberry-infused sparkling water exclusively with retailer Whole Foods! In the Valentines spirit, Dash will be running a social media competition where the entrants will be able to win a three-month supply of the new flavour by dropping by Whole Foods and saying the word ‘squashed’ to Dash’s sampling team.
The Squashed with Love campaign is named after the British raspberries used in its latest product, which, like the existing products in its range, are made using unwanted fruit and vegetables that would otherwise be discarded by UK supermarkets.
Dash Water co-founder Alex Wright told FoodBev: “We only infuse the most delicious flavours and UK-grown raspberries are just that. This fruit is perfect for our unique infusion process where we steep fruit fruit which is either wonky, or in the raspberry’s case is slightly squashed, and therefore does not meet the strict visual aesthetic requirements for the supermarket shelves.”
It has now been eight months since Dash officially launched, and the brand has recently moved into new offices in central London.
“The first eight months have been super exciting,” Wright said. “Firstly, we are proud of the fact we have infused approximately 850kg of wonky fruit and vegetables, which had been rejected by the supermarkets; it’s a core part of what we do. As well as this, Dash is currently retailed in 600 stores and having launched our new raspberry flavour we believe Dash is a great offering for people who are looking for a beverage which does not contain sugar, calories or sweetener.”
Since its debut, the number of brands offering beverages made from rejected but perfectly edible fruit and vegetables has continued to grow. The most recent was British brand Cotchel, which launched a new apple and pear juice line in January using fruit which is too big, too small or too ugly to be sold on their own.
Dash was founded by Jack Scott and Alex Wright.
Retailers too have got involved with ugly fruit, the American supermarket Meijer among the latest to offer shoppers various types of misshapen produce.
It is something that Dash Water, and its founder Wright, have taken heart from.
Wright continued: “One such campaign [from] the food waste charity Feedback has led to supermarkets agreeing to publish their food waste data, giving greater transparency about the scale of the issue. It’s also worth mentioning there has been an incredible groundswell of retailers banning non-necyclable plastic bottles, which is encouraging more suppliers to look at the environmental impact of single use packaging.
“The next 18 months is looking promising with consumers increasingly looking for products which not only do not contain sugar or artificial ingredients but also have a socially driven mission. It’s fantastic to see more products hitting retailers’ shelves which use wonky ingredients – long may it continue!”
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