Maximum nutrition, minimum waste: ‘Root-to-Tip’ dining at King’s College London

The Root-to-Tip project aims to address the need to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables to increase their fibre intake and to combat the amount of fresh produce that ends up as food waste.

A team at King’s is tackling this through their new ‘Root-to-Tip’ menu, which uses more parts of the plant, like peels, stalks, and skins!

The Challenge

Most people in the UK don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, which leads to a lack of fibre in their diet. However, fresh produce also makes up a large proportion of food waste, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. This often comes from the still edible parts of fruits and vegetables being removed when preparing food, for example, through peeling.

So, a King’s College London team asked themselves: Can we increase fibre intake and reduce food waste in the UK by eating more parts of the plants we harvest?

This led to the launch of a ‘Living Laboratory’ in King’s Food to develop and test innovative ‘Root-to-Tip’ recipes that use more parts of the plant in cooking, like peels, stalks, and skins. Once created, the Root-to-Tip recipes were added to the spring King’s Food menu, available to all university staff and students.

While the new ‘Root-to-Tip’ menu could theoretically work, the million-dollar question is: Are the public willing to buy and eat the Root-to-Tip dishes? The Root-to-Tip team is answering this question by surveying the King’s community and keeping track of sales. A marketing campaign is also running alongside the menu launch to raise awareness and encourage people to try the Root-to-Tip dishes.

The results from the ‘Root-to-Tip’ evaluation will first be shared with catering networks to inspire change in public sector catering. Our ultimate ambition is to take ‘Root-to-Tip’ into homes, supermarkets, and beyond to maximise its positive impact on people’s health and the planet.

Action Taken 

To address the question: Can we increase fibre intake and reduce food waste in the UK by eating more parts of the plants we harvest? The team at King’s undertook key activities between October 2024  and April 2025 to prepare to launch and evaluate a Root-to-Tip menu:

October 2024 – Menu development

First, 12 different fruits and vegetables were selected for inclusion in the Root-to-Tip project. To measure how much food waste could be avoided through ‘Root-to-Tip’ cooking, King’s Food chefs prepared each type of produce as they normally would in the kitchen and weighed the amount used versus wasted. The proportion of each type of produce that would typically be discarded ranged from 15% (red pepper - stalk and seeds) to 51% (broccoli - stalk). The dishes for the ‘Root-to-Tip’ menu were then developed using these fruits and vegetables.

December 2024 to January 2025 – Fibre analysis and focus groups

To see how much additional fibre could be added to each dish through ‘Root-to-Tip’ cooking, the fibre content in the parts of the plant usually discarded was analysed and compared to the part typically kept (e.g. watermelon flesh versus watermelon skin). For 11 out of 12 different types of fresh produce, the part of the plant usually wasted contained more fibre.

During this period, focus groups with King’s staff and students were also held to gather their views on the ‘Root-to-Tip’ concept and ideas on how the King’s community could be encouraged to try ‘Root-to-Tip’ dishes. Brainstorming sessions were also conducted to develop design ideas for a ‘Root-to-Tip’ icon on the menu.

February 2025 – April 2025 – Final preparations for menu launch

A social media and marketing campaign was created to engage the King’s community, running alongside the menu launch. The team organised events across King’s campuses to raise awareness of the project. Finally, a consumer survey was developed to gather feedback from the King’s community about ‘Root-to-Tip’ after the menu was launched. This survey included questions on opinions of the menu (e.g., tastiness, healthiness), questions to estimate food waste from ‘Root-to-Tip’ dishes compared to other dishes, and questions to gauge awareness of the marketing campaign.

April 2025 – July 2025 – Evaluation

The ‘Root-to-Tip’ dishes were launched at the end of April 2025 as part of the King’s Food menu. The consumer survey and marketing campaign were also launched alongside the menu, and sales of the ‘Root-to-Tip’ dishes are being monitored to test whether Root-to-Tip has been successful. The results of the evaluation will be analysed in July 2025.

Call to Action

Why not try the following tips and tricks next time you prepare these fruits and vegetables over the summer? They could help you increase your fibre intake and reduce food waste! Make sure to share your creations online with the #EatRootToTip

• Roasted butternut squash: Skip the peeling and roast your butternut squash skin on with a bit of oil and salt. Sprinkle the seeds on top before roasting to add delicious texture.
• Kale salad: Finely chopping kale stalks and adding them to any salad, along with the leaves, gives a satisfying crunch.
• Broccoli any way: whether steaming or stir frying, chopping the stalk into batons and cooking with the florets is a great way to get the most out of your broccoli

You can also follow @kclfood on Instagram to keep up with the project and get more Root-to-Tip inspiration.

Show your support for the Root-to-Tip project by voting to add ‘Root-to-Tip’ as a new word in the Cambridge Dictionary. Vote here. (opens in a new window)