Waste Not: How Oddbox Is Fixing a Broken Food System
Interview by Amber Gilmour for WPP Elevate
It wasn't a perfect tomato. That was the whole point.
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, co-founder and CEO of Oddbox, was on holiday in Portugal when she tasted a misshapen, sunburned piece of fruit that turned out to be one of the best things she'd ever eaten. The kind of tomato you'd never see on a UK supermarket shelf. The kind that gets left on a farm because it doesn't look right.
"It made me realise how disconnected we've become from food," she says. "We only ever see perfection on shelves, so we assume anything else isn't good enough."
When she looked into it, what she found was startling. Around 40% of all the food we produce never gets eaten, and half of that waste happens before it even reaches our kitchens. Produce is rejected not because it's bad, but because it doesn't meet supermarket size and appearance specifications. Edible food, left to rot in fields.
"That felt completely irrational," Emilie says. So she did something about it.
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, co-founder and CEO of Oddbox, was on holiday in Portugal when she tasted a misshapen, sunburned piece of fruit that turned out to be one of the best things she'd ever eaten. The kind of tomato you'd never see on a UK supermarket shelf. The kind that gets left on a farm because it doesn't look right.
"It made me realise how disconnected we've become from food," she says. "We only ever see perfection on shelves, so we assume anything else isn't good enough."
When she looked into it, what she found was startling. Around 40% of all the food we produce never gets eaten, and half of that waste happens before it even reaches our kitchens. Produce is rejected not because it's bad, but because it doesn't meet supermarket size and appearance specifications. Edible food, left to rot in fields.
"That felt completely irrational," Emilie says. So she did something about it.
From 20 Neighbours in Balham to 70% of the UK
Oddbox started small. Emilie and her co-founder began delivering boxes of surplus and wonky veg to 20 neighbours in Balham, south London. No grand launch, no investor fanfare. Just their car, some imperfect vegetables, and a hunch that people, given the chance, would choose differently.
That hunch turned out to be right. Today, Oddbox covers 70% of the UK, has delivered over 10 million boxes, and has rescued more than 65,000 tonnes of food. That's the same weight as 10,000 African elephants. Millions of meals have been redistributed to food poverty charities, produce that would otherwise have cost the company money to dispose of, going instead to people who need it.
The proposition has also grown. Oddbox has expanded beyond fresh produce into refillables and ambient rescued goods, tackling packaging waste alongside food waste. And the mission has always been bigger than the box itself.
"It's about building a movement around a different way of eating," Emilie says, "one that's led by what nature produces, not by rigid recipes, and designed to reduce waste by default. Because if you don't fix how people cook, you don't fix food waste."
Oddbox started small. Emilie and her co-founder began delivering boxes of surplus and wonky veg to 20 neighbours in Balham, south London. No grand launch, no investor fanfare. Just their car, some imperfect vegetables, and a hunch that people, given the chance, would choose differently.
That hunch turned out to be right. Today, Oddbox covers 70% of the UK, has delivered over 10 million boxes, and has rescued more than 65,000 tonnes of food. That's the same weight as 10,000 African elephants. Millions of meals have been redistributed to food poverty charities, produce that would otherwise have cost the company money to dispose of, going instead to people who need it.
The proposition has also grown. Oddbox has expanded beyond fresh produce into refillables and ambient rescued goods, tackling packaging waste alongside food waste. And the mission has always been bigger than the box itself.
"It's about building a movement around a different way of eating," Emilie says, "one that's led by what nature produces, not by rigid recipes, and designed to reduce waste by default. Because if you don't fix how people cook, you don't fix food waste."
The Scale of the Problem
The numbers are the kind that don't sit easily once you've heard them.
In the UK alone, around 3.3 million tonnes of food are wasted on farms every year, including 2.9 million tonnes of edible food, roughly 6.9 billion meals, gone before they ever reach a supermarket. At the household level, UK families throw away £17 billion worth of food annually, around £1,000 per household. Globally, food waste accounts for between 8 and 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
"The scale is honestly staggering," Emilie says, "and still largely invisible."
Much of it happens out of sight, on farms and in supply chains, long before a consumer makes a single decision. Fixing individual behaviour matters, but the system itself is broken upstream. That's where Oddbox is focused.
Purpose and Profit Are Not Opposites
Emilie talks about the commercial side of the business without sentiment. More boxes delivered means more food rescued. Donating surplus to charity rather than paying to dispose of it makes financial sense. The ethical choice and the efficient choice are, more often than not, the same choice.
"Profitability is essential to scaling impact," she says. "You can't do one without the other."
The numbers are the kind that don't sit easily once you've heard them.
In the UK alone, around 3.3 million tonnes of food are wasted on farms every year, including 2.9 million tonnes of edible food, roughly 6.9 billion meals, gone before they ever reach a supermarket. At the household level, UK families throw away £17 billion worth of food annually, around £1,000 per household. Globally, food waste accounts for between 8 and 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
"The scale is honestly staggering," Emilie says, "and still largely invisible."
Much of it happens out of sight, on farms and in supply chains, long before a consumer makes a single decision. Fixing individual behaviour matters, but the system itself is broken upstream. That's where Oddbox is focused.
Purpose and Profit Are Not Opposites
Emilie talks about the commercial side of the business without sentiment. More boxes delivered means more food rescued. Donating surplus to charity rather than paying to dispose of it makes financial sense. The ethical choice and the efficient choice are, more often than not, the same choice.
"Profitability is essential to scaling impact," she says. "You can't do one without the other."
What's also emerged is a community of customers who have changed not just their shopping habits but the way they eat. Many report cooking more at home, relying less on takeaways, and having different conversations with their children about where food comes from. Letters inside every box explain where the produce came from and why it nearly didn't make it to anyone's plate. A small detail, but one that makes the supply chain visible in a way most food brands don't attempt.
An Ugly Tomato, Still
Emilie Vanpoperinghe did not set out to build a business.
She tasted a tomato. She asked a question nobody around her seemed particularly interested in answering. Then she built a company that has rescued 65,000 tonnes of food, changed the shopping habits of hundreds of thousands of families, and is making a serious case for a different relationship between consumers, producers, and the planet.
Not bad for a piece of fruit that wouldn't have made it past a supermarket buyer.
Oddbox delivers weekly boxes of rescued fruit, vegetables and more across the UK. Visit oddbox.co.uk to find out more. Thanks to Oddbox, members get 25% off the first four boxes. Log in to your benefits hub to access your discount code.
An Ugly Tomato, Still
Emilie Vanpoperinghe did not set out to build a business.
She tasted a tomato. She asked a question nobody around her seemed particularly interested in answering. Then she built a company that has rescued 65,000 tonnes of food, changed the shopping habits of hundreds of thousands of families, and is making a serious case for a different relationship between consumers, producers, and the planet.
Not bad for a piece of fruit that wouldn't have made it past a supermarket buyer.
Oddbox delivers weekly boxes of rescued fruit, vegetables and more across the UK. Visit oddbox.co.uk to find out more. Thanks to Oddbox, members get 25% off the first four boxes. Log in to your benefits hub to access your discount code.
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