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Dutch food firm Yespers is opening what it describes as the ‘world’s first’ total value factory, located in The Hague.

The apple processing factory values and uses every single part of the fruit. This means it produces zero waste and utilises every residual flow (leftover materials and byproducts).

At Yespers’ new factory, stems, seeds, cores and fruit are separated before being processed, enabling every part of the apple to be valued:

🍏 Stems are dried and made into an apple tea blend

🍎 Seeds finely pressed into apple oil

🍏 Cores go into the pressing process along with the fruit to be processed into apple juice

🍎 The pulp remaining after pressing is dried and ground into apple fruit powder

Yespers’ founder Stefan Baecke said: “In our view, waste only exists when you misuse resources. It is quite strange that apple juice is often considered more valuable than the other parts of the apple, while apple juice is actually mainly sugar water. We actually want to emphasise the maximum value of all parts.”

Baecke continued: “We already had one apple line where we used the whole apple for our breakfast products. In the new factory, we can start running larger volumes. More food producers will be able to use the products processed from the whole apple. The idea is to make the Total Value factory the centre for innovative and socially sustainable food production.”

Located at the Total Value factory is the Yespers Academy, where employees are coached in learning new skills and increasing self-confidence to obtaining certificates, enabling them to move on to a job in the factory or be guided to enter the job market more confidently.

Saskia Bruines, Deputy Mayor of the City of The Hague, commented: “The Hague has many entrepreneurs combining doing good and doing business. Yespers takes this to the next level. Their impact goes beyond its own company by engaging the whole food chain in its mission.”

#Yespers #theNetherlands #apple #zerowaste