Apples and pears of small size, crooked carrots, butternuts not big enough, salads and spinach from a surplus production… here are some of the ingredients that we will find in the first baskets delivered by the start-up PimpUp, this Wednesday in Toulouse.
Specialized in the prevention of food waste, PimpUp aims to help producers and processors to promote products refused by traditional distribution channels for essentially aesthetic reasons.
“Our goal is to save one million tons of food from waste. For this, we are going to see the producers in order to offer them the possibility of selling their entire production, upstream of the distribution chains”, announces Anaïs Lacombre, co-founder of the start-up, with Manon Pagnucco.

Sensitized very early

These two “great friends”, engineers by training, had the idea of ​​founding PimpUp following a scene in the United States where Manon was subscribed to an anti-waste box to do her lessons. Back in Montpellier, with a roommate, the two friends are looking for the same concept. In vain. “When we realized that it didn’t exist, we wanted to create it,” continues Anaïs Lacombe.
The two 24-year-old women were made aware of food waste from an early age. “Manon’s grandparents were farmers in the Drôme, they are the kings of food recovery. For my part, my mother founded an AMAP, so I grew up in the crates,” says Anaïs.
Initially tested in Montpellier, where PimpUp already has 700 customers who regularly order baskets, the start-up is now arriving here. “Toulouse is therefore the second city where we are setting up, but this is only the beginning of the journey. Our goal is to become the national and European leader in the fight against food waste”.
From this Wednesday, 200 baskets will leave in twenty relay points spread throughout the city.
“In the smallest basket, there are at least seven different products, organic or not”.
All are accessible on the internet “where it is possible to order every week directly online by means of a non-binding subscription”. This system makes it possible to pay less for fruits and vegetables, “with a saving of 30% compared to shops. It takes between €15 and €27 for a basket of 4, 6 or 8 kg. »