The Real Junk Food Project has launched a fundraising campaign to open a full-time pay-as-you-feel restaurant in Manchester next year, using only food destined to be thrown out.

The project needs to raise £20,000 by January 13 in order to go ahead, with pledges being sought through Crowdfunder.

Chef Mary-Ellen McTague, formerly of the Fat Duck and Manchester’s Aumbry, heads the Real Junk Food Manchester kitchen team, which has run a series of pop-ups in the city’s Northern Quarter over the past two years. Sustainability campaigner and director Corin Bell believes it is the time to take the idea further with a permanent kitchen and staff.

The aim is to show how to reduce the estimated 15 million tonnes of healthy food thrown out each year in Britain, by producing meals with ingredients donated by supermarkets, restaurants, distributors and farmers.

“In fact, produce from wholesalers is often at the peak of ripeness but retailers wouldn’t buy it because it would be past its best the day after it reached their shelves,” Bell said. “The best way we can think of to show how good this food is, is to have amazing chefs transform it into fantastic dishes of top restaurant quality.”