Sustain Meals
At the GREEN LABEL company our customers come in all shapes and sizes, and we love them all equally. We often get to work with newly launched businesses and following those journeys is incredibly exciting. One such example is Sustain Meals. We spoke to Charlie about the trials and tribulations of launching, and his vision for a sustainable future.
What is Sustain Meals?
“Sustain Meals provide nutritious, high-protein, allergen free, vegan meal bowls. The ethos of the company is to try and make sustainable eating accessible to all, without mandating compromise on flavour, cost, or nutrition. Our meals are almost entirely organic and are primarily composed of British pulses and quinoa; inclusion of these alternative crop-derived ingredients promotes agri-diversity. We manufacture our meal bowls by hand and wholesale to other organisations.”
How did you get started?
“The idea came about as part of a Durham University entrepreneurship programme. I wanted to do something that was environmentally focussed, relatively easy to implement, with a reasonably small start-up investment (£10,000 raised from Durham University).”
What makes Sustain Meals different?
“Our ingredients have been specially selected for their seasonal adaptivity, ensuring the majority can be UK sourced most of the year round. They have also been selected for their agricultural sustainability owing to their nitrogen fixing properties. Legumes (pulse producing crops) have been recognised as important in facilitating the transition from intensive agriculture, driven by environmentally damaging fertilisers and pesticides, to regenerative agriculture.
By showing people the kinds of food that they could be eating to make our food system more genetically diverse and resilient, we hope to promote the consumption of such foods more generally, thus helping to make the UK agri-food system stronger and more sustainable.
The component ingredients in our meals also have low production-associated carbon footprint and are dense in micronutrients, providing a range of health benefits. Our packaging is also plant derived and is recyclable and biodegradable.”
Where do you currently stock?
“Durham University is our main client, but we are looking to make connections with Newcastle University over the coming months. We also attend food festivals and have provided canapés for Durham University college events.”
What have been the main challenges?
“We've had to overcome a long list of challenges. Figuring out the necessary food safety regulations, insurance requirements, and food labelling specifications has required a reasonable amount of effort. Renting an affordable kitchen, and a substantial and logistically viable route to market were others.”
What are your plans for the future?
“In 1-2 years' time we'd want to have established a hub in the Northeast, whereby we are wholesaling our meals to several universities (and perhaps schools) in the region. To achieve this first goal, we intend outsourcing manufacturing to a third party. In 5-10 years' time we'd like to have developed a more diverse menu of products. We aim to have these on sale in over one third of UK university and school cafes. In 10-15 years' time we would like to be supplying major supermarkets - nationwide. Primary targets are Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.”
Why did you choose biodegradable labels?
“It's important to us that everything about our operation is environmentally friendly. In line with this ethos, 100% biodegradable packaging was the only viable option for us.”
Want to know more?
We wish all at Sustain Meals the very best and we will look out for them when we are in the Northeast. If you would like to follow them, here are their social media links:
Instagram: @sustain_meals
Facebook: @sustainmealsltd
LinkedIn: @Sustain Meals
To find out more about how biodegradable labels can help to communicate a very distinctive message about your product, please drop us a line marketing@greenlabels.co.uk or call for a chat 01548 859029.
