Food waste is a global problem – and for Laffe Goods, the solution can start in the kitchen. As a kitchen manager with a food science degree, founder Sally smelled potential (literally) in chaff, the caramel-scented coffee-roasting byproduct that’s usually thrown away. It now serves as the flavourful base for her bestselling chilli jams and condiments – guaranteeing more taste and less waste.

What is Laffe Goods: what’s your mission and what do you sell?

At Laffe Goods we make condiments and sauces that are all centred around reducing food waste. To do this, we have actually based our first range of products around a by-product from coffee roasting called coffee chaff.

What’s coffee chaff and how do you use it to create your condiments?

Coffee chaff is normally produced when roasting coffee beans. During this process the husk of the bean comes off and is separated. It looks similar to the papery layer of a peanut. It weighs very little but takes up so much space in our kitchen!

We use the chaff in all our sauces to add a unique touch, whether it’s blended in like our barbecue sauce or whole like in our chilli oils.

How does the chaff add a unique flavour?

During the roasting process, the coffee chaff gains a unique malty, caramel flavour. We take advantage of this unique flavour in all our sauces.

What other health benefits does it have?

Coffee chaff actually has a large amount of antioxidants, so some people actually use it to help plants grow! The one thing some people worry about is whether it has a lot of caffeine. Rest assured, even if you chugged the entire bottle of barbecue sauce it would still be less than a decaf coffee!

“Coffee chaff actually has a large amount of antioxidants”

What’s your best-selling product and how do you recommend people use it in their cooking?

It was our Red Chilli Oil, but ever since we started selling our Yellow Chilli Jam in November 2025 it has massively overtaken it in popularity. Something about that sweet and spicy hit, I guess!

The Yellow Chilli Jam goes seriously well with cheese and I have made some of the best grilled cheese sandwiches with it. You can also use it as a glaze on roasted meats and vegetables. We will actually be putting more recipe inspiration on our website too.

What’s your personal journey with sustainability?

I’ve always been an advocate for reducing food wastage. I have a degree in food science and I remember writing a lot of essays on the subject.

I just think that it’s absolutely crazy that there is enough food in the world to comfortably feed everyone and yet we have people starving. I could talk for a long time about how it affects the environment let alone us on a personal level but I wont bore you… yet!

How did this lead you to launch Laffe Goods?

I came up with Laffe when I was Kitchen Manager and worked alongside a coffee roastery. Everyday they would throw away this chaff and I just thought it smelt so good, and I don’t even like coffee! It had a deep caramel smell and I thought that it would be so easy to create something from it.

My first product was actually a cola. After a long time developing, it tasted great but as a small company I couldn’t compete with big dogs so I had to set it aside. I then made the Red Chilli Oil and Barbecue Sauce. The Red Chilli Oil was so popular that I had to continue making more chilli products, so that’s how I created the Green Chilli Oil and the Yellow Chilli Jam.

Your ethos is ‘more taste, less waste’. Why is it so important for us all to reduce food wastage?

There is a statistic that if food waste were a country it would be the third biggest contributor to greenhouse gases after the US and China. That’s just mad, isn’t it? I think people aren’t really aware of how much energy it takes from growing, processing and transporting the food that ends up in the supermarket, and all for it to end up in the bin when it’s sat in our fridge for too long.

It is great to focus on energy-saving lightbulbs and so on, but we should also be aware of how much reducing food waste could positively affect the environment.

What’s your business journey been like so far?

I really enjoy having my own business, even if I am stressed about it 24/7! But it has been so rewarding interacting with customers and seeing their reaction when they taste our sauces and it makes the stress totally worth it.

We are positive for this year to come as we have seen steady growth. Watch out for Laffe in your local stores, that’s what I’ll say.

“It has been so rewarding interacting with customers and seeing their reaction when they taste our sauces”

What products do you want to launch next?

We want to keep focusing on and ‘upcycling’ wasted ingredients, so basing products on bread or pastries is a potential. This way we can work with local bakeries to help reduce their wastage too.

What’s the long-term vision for Laffe Goods?

You will hopefully see our products in the supermarkets with our increased range of food waste tackling products!

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