ADAM Smith is on a mission.

“I am going to feed the world because I can, because I can show people this model,” he says adamantly.

The 29-year-old is referring to the concept he saw on his travels in Australia and which he has since brought back to his home city of Leeds which he hopes will, eventually, abolish food waste entirely.

Since setting up The Real Junk Food Project in December last year, Adam is seeing the concept rapidly spreading out to other towns and cities throughout the UK – it launches in Bradford next – and it is now gaining global attention.

Promotion of the concept has come through the Pay-as-you-feel cafe he launched in Armley in December. Run by volunteers, the cafe uses food from a number of companies and organisations who are supporting the project by passing on surplus food which would otherwise find its way into landfill.

Instead it is helping to feed the customers who call in.

They can give a donation if they wish for the feast they enjoy or, if they wish, they can pay in kind by helping to wash up.

Adam recalls the younger customers who taught fellow diners and staff how to do kick-ups in return for their fodder.

“Morally, we cannot sell food that has been thrown away, but there is still a value in it because somebody spent time growing it and making it,” explains Adam.

According to Adam, the cafe has an “open-door” and the project’s aim is to educate everyone not to waste food.

To put the extent of our food wastage into a greater context, Adam explains that the UK’s food waste could feed 2.7 billion in the UK.

He says the problem is shoppers are manipulated by food labelling; best-before; sell- by and display-by dates, which prompts many people to throw perfectly edible food away.

“People don’t use their judgment any more.

“We say if it smells or looks off or if it is walking off your plate don’t eat it.”

Working in the catering industry – he spent 12 years working as a head chef in Australia, Hertfordshire and Leeds Adam is probably more conscious of food waste than most and he is determined to do something about it for the sake of the nation and the environment.

There are currently 10 cafes in the UK running under the auspice of The Real Junk Food Project.

Since the project went full-time in March, the Leeds cafe has made use of 16/17 tonnes of waste food which they put to use creating meals or putting rotten food into compost to feed their urban grow garden scheme – another spin-off the project is busy developing.

Adam explains the food would have gone to landfill.

“And we’ve fed 7,000 people and created about 8,500 meals,” he says.

Caviar, smoked salmon, cured meats and eggs are among the “waste” food they have received along with surplus vegetables from organisations who know they can be put to good use.

One organisation they work with was forced to discard 600 packs of eggs simply through human error – the wrong shelf-life sticker was applied.

It was as simple as that.

As well as running the cafes, they are also giving talks and educating youngsters.

“We are tackling it on the front-line but we want to put ourselves out of business,” says Adam.

“If there is no more waste food then we can close the door and say we are done,” he adds.

Following on Leeds’ success, The Shipley Food Project – known as The Saltaire Canteen – launches on November 29 in Victoria Road.

This faith-based initiative will work with other local organisations such as the Bradford North Foodbank to help those facing food poverty.

Addressing the recent Family Food Crisis Morning at the Thornbury Centre, Bradford, organised by the Welfare Reform Impact Bradford and Wellsprings Together Bradford, an organisation funded by the Church Urban Fund to tackle poverty.

Project director, Duncan Milwain said: “We want to go back to people eating together as a community and we will provide opportunities for groups to come together and eat together.”

He says the aim is to address the amount of food waste. “We do that by changing our individual habits and how we shop.

“We do it by putting political pressure to try to change the way shops and supermarkets operate.”

He says if we start using the food which goes to waste – more than a third produced across the globe – people won’t be in food poverty.

“The idea is to get people to understand that if we can access that and use, it a third of the food is there for everybody.”