Babaco Market & Biova Project Team Up Against Food Waste

Introducing Biova Lemon, a beer crafted from rescued lemons

Babaco Market and Biova Project have teamed up to launch a circular economy project against food waste, resulting in the creation of Biova Lemon - a German-inspired "blonde" beer with a fresh touch from hand-squeezed juice of rescued lemons, mixed directly into the wort.

The brew uses 200 kg of Femminello IGP lemons recovered from potential food waste by Babaco Market. These were lemons that otherwise would have struggled to find commercial buyers - while perfectly delicious, they had minor "aesthetic imperfections" and scars on their peel. Babaco Market's lemons joined Biova Project's food waste-fighting beer base to create something truly unique: a beer made with juice from rescued lemons.The result is an incredibly drinkable beer, perfect for warm weather, with a soul dedicated to food waste recovery and special attention to circular economy principles.

Since May 2020, Babaco Market has offered a subscription-based delivery service for fresh food, fruits and vegetables, giving proper value to products that struggle commercially despite being delicious - whether due to aesthetic imperfections, overproduction, or being niche local excellences (including Slow Food Presidia, IGP and PAT products). In three years, Babaco Market has helped save over 1,600 tons of perfectly unique fruits and vegetables (all 100% Made in Italy), collaborating with more than 100 producers across the country.

"Ugly" lemons make great beer

"Biova Lemon is one of the most fun and innovative projects of this season. A product that from its very creation was designed for a specific purpose: to give a second chance to those earth-grown fruits that, for purely aesthetic and commercial reasons, weren't valued by traditional distribution. In this era of limited resources and growing demand, we'd like to see more operations like this."

"The natural alignment between Biova Project's and Babaco's values made this result easy to achieve, proving it's possible to see the food industry with different eyes and create products ready for ecological transition," says Franco Dipietro, Founder and CEO of Biova Project.

"We're thrilled about the collaboration with Biova, with whom we share sustainability values and the goal of reducing food waste. Biova Lemon beer represents an important first step for Babaco Market toward consolidating and further developing our service. We're expanding our commitment against food waste by adding transformed products to our fruit/vegetable recovery through circular economy projects - promoting ethical, sustainable online shopping,"

comments Francesco Giberti, CEO and Founder of Babaco Market.