Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world, but also one of the most wasted. We want to stop 1.4m bananas going to waste every day by turning them into awesome food waste-fighting delicious banana bars - or if we may: the best bars on and for the planet!
We think it's crazy that a third of all the food we produce globally is wasted. Every single day in the UK, we throw out 1.4 million edible bananas. When we do that, we’re not just wasting the fruit that’s in front of us. We waste all the energy and resources that were used to grow it and then transport it all the way over here. Getting a perfectly ripe banana to a shop shelf is pretty tricky business so loads of perfectly good ones end up being wasted for being too green, too brown, or too spotty. This is where our delicious protest comes in - we want to save surplus bananas to turn them into tasty banana bars, packed with all the nutrition of flawless fruit. One bar will save one banana from going to waste, and will give you a wholesome, slow release energy boost.
Each bar saves one banana from going to waste. But our banana bars are about so much more than saving fruit: they provide a balanced snack rich in both flavour and nutrients, all with less than 130 calories. We developed recipes for three delicious flavour combinations that use simple, good quality ingredients to bring you the best snacking experience and fantastic nutritional value: Apple & Cinnamon Kick, Beetroot & Cacao Blast, and Carrot & Spice Boost. Each bar is packed with fruit, veg, oats, and superfoods like nuts, seeds, quinoa, cacao or coconut - and unlike almost every bar on the market, definitely no dates!
Our bars are vegan, gluten free, have no added sugar, additives or preservatives. The result is a tasty snack that provides you with balanced nutrition to help fuel your day, whether you have a late night finish at the office or are about to climb a mountain – and they happen to save ugly and unwanted bananas in the process. They are also wrapped in innovative home compostable film, first of this kind of packaging in the UK that we pioneered with our existing product, fruit jerky. Unlike traditional plastic, our compostable packaging can be added to any ordinary compost heap or green waste collection, and will decompose completely, becoming fertiliser to the soil - just like a banana peel would.
We’ve been making deliciously sustainable snacks to tackle food waste for the last 3 years. Our first product, fruit jerky, has saved tonnes of apples from going to waste. We first launched it through a crowdfunding campaign, so to bring this new product out, we’re back to ask you to help us reach another level in our mission. With the amazing support from our Snactivists, we were able to go from saving fruit by the punnet to saving it by the pallet: the Crowdfunder community helped us grow and save over 150 tonnes of fruit from going to waste. Today, we sell our snacks to offices and schools, we are stocked in Ocado, Amazon, Planet Organic, As Nature Intended, Sourced Market, and lots of independent outlets across the UK and beyond. But we are still hungry for change. And for that, we need your help!
Developing a new product and bringing it to the market is expensive, and making that product sustainable is even more ambitious. We apply sustainable solutions to every aspect of our enterprise: we rescue fruit in the UK, make our snacks locally, and use highly innovative home compostable packaging to reduce packaging waste too. And we want to show that these types of values are supported by the crowd!
To make this happen, we need your support - and we’re offering you a chance to be the very first to try our great new product before it hits the shelves! To make the first run of the bars we need £10,000. We will use the money to make that happen: pay for the healthy ingredients (the nuts, seeds, oats & spices are not surplus - and our surplus bananas have a cost associated with them too), the compostable packaging, and manufacturing costs. By backing us, you’ll help make this delicious protest a reality, be the first to get your hands on the fruits of our labour, and help us save tonnes of bananas from going to waste. In a nutshell, you’ll help us create more taste and less waste!
Join our #deliciousprotest by becoming a Banana Guerrilla - you’ll get some brilliant rewards to help you on the More Taste, Less Waste mission, and you’ll be one of the first people on the planet to try the brand new banana bars! We want to get as many of the delicious bars to you as possible & save as many bananas as we can along the way. Our popular Snact undies have a made a comeback as have our Snactscriptions ensuring you a monthly delivery of bars for the next 12 months (we’ll throw some free fruit jerky in there too!) A delicious protest wouldn’t be complete without a set of protest tools, so we’re also giving you epic slogan stickers and other essential bits of a seasoned Snactivist’s kit. If you pledge over £100, we’ll invite you to our Big Banana Bonanza party in October (date TBC). Our banana wheels are in motion so we’ll aim to get all our rewards delivered to you by mid-September.
The first 100 backers get a “Tote-ally Plastic Free” Snact tote bag (made from organic faitrade cotton), so get pledging now for this extra reward!
The first 100 backers will also be entered into a raffle for a fantastic cooking session with surplus chef extraordinaire Shane Jordan, educator and author of Food Waste Philosophy. Shane specialises in creating imaginative meals from surplus food, and has kindly offered 1 lucky Snactivist a 1 hour online session (with the possibility to arrange in person in Bristol) where he can share some of his amazing knowledge and recipes using ingredients we tend to discard, like fruit and veg peels, so you can create more taste & less waste in your own kitchen!
*** Please note: the look of the rewards is approximate, colours may vary***
Boost your banana power £10
You get a set of delicious protest stickers ("This S%@!t is Bananas”, "Plastic is Not Fantastic", "More Taste Less Waste") compostable stickers which you can plaster on stuff that drives you bananas, like pointlessly excessive plastic packaging.
Guerrillas with Bananas £20
You get 15 tasty banana bars (5 of each flavour) for your guerrilla snacking arsenal + a set of compostable stickers to plaster on stuff that drives you bananas, like long & incomprehensible ingredient labels.
Forbidden Fruit - back by popular demand! £30
You get 15 delicious banana bars (5 of each flavour) and a very special pair of Snact branded underwear! Snact undies were a hit in our previous Crowdfunder, so we’re bringing them back for an updated banana edition. Sustainably made, they’re just as natural as fig leaves, and a lot comfier. Please specify the cut you prefer (boxers or knickers) and your size.
Take Stock (of Bananas) £40
Perfect for shop owners (or Snactivists who really mean business!) You get 1 case of each flavour (there are 16 bars per case, so that’s 48 in total) to get your shop or outlet stocked with tasty banana bars - plus a dazzling counter display.
Delicious Protest Kit £50
Snactivists of the world, unite! You get a Snact “More Taste Less Waste” t-shirt made from recycled organic cotton, a set of delicious protest mini placards and compostable stickers - plus 30 banana bars to keep you going while you’re organising your delicious protest.
Go Bananas £100
Pull out all the stops with 96 tasty banana bars (2 cases of each flavour), delicious protest placards and compostable stickers, and an invite to our Big Banana Bonanza Party in London in October where we can all go bananas (think banana cocktails, banana eating contest, Bananarama playlist, exclusive appearance of Bobo the Green Gorilla with a Gwen Stefani guest rap - maybe).
Banana Snactscription £200
Does running out of delicious and nutritious snacks drive you bananas? We’ll sort you out with 21 tasty banana bars delivered to your door every month for the next 12 months. That’s one bar of nutritionally balanced banana goodness for every working day - talk about an apeeling investment!
Banana Boss £500
You want ALL the snacks for your shop, office, or school! We’ll send you 10 cases of each flavour (480 bars) and come to your location of choice (within the UK) to run one of our popular surplus cooking workshops (or run it on Skype if you prefer!) Plus a fresh bunch of delicious protest mini placards and compostable stickers.
Spread the Banana Love £1000
If you really love bananas: get a sweet 10 cases of each flavour for yourself, plus 10 cases of each flavour which we can send to up to 10 people or organisations of your choice - so you get to spread the banana love 960 times! We will also come to your location of choice (within the UK) to run one of our popular surplus cooking workshops (or run it on Skype if you prefer!) or throw you your very own mini banana party.
International shipping
Please add £5 for international shipping.
Can I try the banana bars?
Sure thing - if you’re in London, come to our Brixton office and see for yourself if this sh%@!t is actually bananas.
Isn’t Snact up and running already? Why are you crowdfunding again?
We first launched Snact with a Crowdfunder campaign so it felt appropriate to launch our next product the same way! We’ve grown a lot since our DIY days but we’re still a small enterprise, and the upfront costs of making a new product are high - plus a crowdfunder means we can get the bars directly to you, and give you a great deal on the product. Last but not least, we want this bar to be built on people power!
How are these bars different to the million other bars already on the market?
The Snact banana bar is a nutritionally balanced snack rich in both flavour and nutrients that provides you with slow-release energy, all with less than 130 calories. Each one is packed with fruit, veg, oats, and superfoods like nuts, seeds, cacao, quinoa or coconut. Most of the bars of this type available on the market are based on dates. There’s nothing wrong with dates, but as bananas are one of the most popular fruit of all time, we thought we'd give people what they want: bananas! Not to mention - sourcing from surplus to cut food waste and using compostable packaging to cut plastic waste is a pretty unique combo on top of that.
Is the whole bar made from surplus ingredients?
We created the bars to tackle a huge waste stream - bananas. We thought the best way to do that will be to create the best bar on the planet - but for that we needed some more ingredients to make it the delicious nutritionally balanced treat that it is. So not all ingredients used in the bars are sourced from surplus, but each bar saves one banana from going to waste, so the more you snack, the more bananas are saved!
Is your packaging actually home compostable? What is it made of?
Now, this sh%@!t is really bananas. Add the Snact packaging to any ordinary compost heap and it will organically decompose to become fertiliser - just like a regular banana peel would. We’ve seen it happen and we got pics to prove it! The film was developed by TIPA from a blend of compostable polymers, most of which are bio-based and their sources are wood pulp and corn. Read more about this food tech revolution on our website.
What happens if you don’t reach the goal?
We are really excited about the banana bars and so we obviously really hope to succeed! Tackling food waste is a huge challenge but as committed Snactivists we won’t give up on it - that said, if the Crowdfunder is successful we’ll be able to reach a much wider audience in a shorter time, which in turn means multiplying our impact and saving more bananas!
Why aren’t these bars free if they’re made from surplus?
There is no such thing as a free lunch! While there sometimes may be such a thing as free surplus bananas (some packhouses give them away for free because it’s more costly for them to deal with the surplus themselves - but that’s not always the case!), there’s still a long way from having a load of bananas and having a load of delicious healthy sustainable bars. We manufacture in the UK where labour costs are higher, and at every step of the way make sure to pay fair prices to people who work in the food system.
What is surplus anyway? Is it the same thing as food waste?
Surplus is all the food that is rejected for being too small, too big, wonky-shaped, irregularly coloured, or simply too abundant. It has nothing to do with the quality of the produce. Surplus happens at every level of the food system, from farms all the way to households. The logistics of getting a "perfect" banana to a shop shelf are very complex so loads of perfectly good ones end up being rejected for not fitting these strict criteria before even reaching the shops. Surplus can then become food waste - unless we save it to find another use for it, like a delicious and nutritious banana bar!
What’s bananas about banana waste?
We’re glad you asked… Bananas are one of the most popular fruit in the world, but also one of the most wasted. In the UK alone, we throw out 1.4 million edible bananas every day! It takes lots of resources (water, soil, energy...) and labour to grow bananas, then transport them to the UK, so all of those things are wasted in the process. We think that's bananas!