Save the Spuds: How we're redirecting surplus potatoes to local communities

The crop research programme at Newcastle University delivers world-leading organic potato crop research, leveraging remote sensing technology, bioinsecticides, gene sequencing, crossbreeding, cropping strategies and more.

It can also generate over 7 tonnes of surplus potatoes every year. These spuds are considered EU-Organic compliant, human edible, but cannot be sold into the food supply chain because they are “research outputs”. They can, however, be donated.

Until 2022, surplus spuds were donated on a sporadic or ad-hoc basis to local charities. However, this project type has challenges: Space and storage restrictions mean this activity needs to be undertaken regularly for a regular supply of potatoes. Low volunteer numbers means that it is challenging to have enough human resource to undertake this activity. Many charities also do not have vehicles to collect potatoes from the farm. These barriers are often cited in research and have previously resulted in low adoption of surplus collections, leading to large quantities of unavoidable food waste.