Sisters giving new life to food you’d discard

Maggie and Katie Quach are on a mission to stop food waste and help people save money by buying products past their “best before” date.

Most of us throw away food when it passes its “best before” date – but two sisters have turned these products into a new business.

Unlike “use by” dates, which show when a product becomes unsafe to eat, “best before” simply means when the product is at peak quality, and is more of a suggestion. Food past its “best before” date is still safe to eat.

Nevertheless, grocery stores and households across Australia regularly throw these products in the bin.

But Maggie and Katie Quach are on a mission to stop food waste and help people save money by buying products past their “best before” date.

“It was scary to think how much of this food goes to waste,” Maggie said.

Maggie and Katie Quach in their new shop Beyond Best Before at Newtown with some of the products they stock. Picture: Adam Yip

After speaking to local suppliers and businesses, the sisters realised they could get bulk quantities of food products at half the usual cost.

And now they have opened Beyond Best Before, a store in Newtown dedicated to these products.

“Generally the prices we are going for are on average a minimum of 50 per cent off retail pricing,” Ms Quach said.

“You don’t have to wait for a weekly catalogue like the big supermarkets do, you can come to us and have all those discounts readily available.”

Some of the savings include non-alcoholic cocktails down form $29 a pack to $12, chocolate blocks from $4.50 down to $1.90, and ice cream from $12.50 to $5.

Ahead of their grand opening next week, Ms Quach said demand was already high with families desperate to find solutions to their rising grocery bills.

“There is definitely an opportunity to educate consumers about the fact that you can still consume these products. So I can see my shop as helping people better understand the waste that comes with throwing these perfectly edible foods away but also the fact that you can still save a lot of money if you just change the way that you think,” she said.

It’s completely legal for businesses like Beyond Best Before to sell these products – the NSW Food Authority advice is to only buy these products if they are not damaged or deteriorated.

The NSW Food Authority advice says many foods “retain their colour, taste, texture and flavour as long as they are stored correctly”.

The Quach sisters also hope changing attitudes about best before will limit the amount of food waste produced by Aussie households.

Food Innovation Australia Limited found that food waste costs the economy $36.6 billion every year and 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted across the supply chain.