We’re chipping away at our mission to lessen our impact on the environment and as part of that journey, we’ve got our sights set on reducing food waste through rescuing and repurposing local food ingredients and incorporating them into delicious limited-edition specials and long-term menu development projects.

Introducing Wild Heart, a special edition burger that's built with purpose and consciously crafted in partnership with conservationist crusaders; Citizen Collective, the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation and WITHWILD. Wild Heart is designed to challenge the way we look at food consumption in New Zealand.

Wild Heart is 100% locally sourced and consciously crafted with rescued and repurposed ingredients.

WITHWILD Fiordland Wapiti Venison Patty: Comes from the heart of the Fiordland National Park where, every year, wild introduced Wapiti deer are culled to help protect precious native flora and fauna through WITHWILD and the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation deer management programme. A dollar from every burger sold will be donated to support the park's conservation.

Rescued Central Otago Cherry Sauce: Made from (otherwise export quality) blemished cherries grown in the Central Otago.

Rescued Wonky Carrots: Locally grow, shredded from split, wonky carrots that would otherwise go to waste.

Rescued Artisan Buns: Made with 4% spent-grain flour, the nutritious by-product of Citizens craft beer brewing process, part of their award-winning circular solution for upcycling wasted or unsold bread. With no compromise on taste, our Rescued Artisan Buns have that recognisable home-made, wholesome flavour.

Rescued Cherry Cola: Combining dark, rich, vibrant flavours with rescued Central Otago cherries and rum wash (the by-product botanicals from rum making). A Citizen and BurgerFuel collaboration that is perfectly paired with Wild Heart.

HELP US RESCUE

Reducing food waste is one way we can play our part in climate change and every little action makes a difference. Help us sell out of this special burger and collectively we could rescue 4.3tonnes of wild Fiordland Wapiti, 280,000 Citizen Central Otago cherries (between our Cherry sauce and Rescued Cola), 300kgs of broken Pukekohe carrots, 240kgs of repurposed Citizen 'bread-bread mash' which was a result of our limited edition run of LagerFuel, and every can of Rescued Cherry Cola will save 29 perfectly good cherries from going to waste.  

FIORDLAND WAPITI FOUNDATION

In 1993, a group of hunters formed the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation (FWF) to address the potential threat to the flora and fauna of the Fiordland National Park caused by Wapiti deer, an introduced species, while maintaining a quality herd for future trophy hunting opportunities. In combination with a DOC reforestation project, the FWF selective culling programme aims to maintain the deer population at a sustainable environmental level. The FWF has created a world-leading approach to conservation, looking after 175,000 hectares as the only private organisation to which DOC has relinquished majority control.

The aim is to cull around 1000 -1400 animals from the area through helicopter-based hunting. These activities help meet key FWF objectives supporting the Fiordland National Park as a World Heritage area while encouraging conservation and appreciation of the Wapiti herd as a manageable resource.

The management programme consists of a combination of a controlled Wapiti hunting ballot system and Heli-hunting, which sees huge international demand for a fifty-day management window. Hunters can apply online to be allocated a 10-day hunt permit for one of the 25 Fiordland blocks.

The leading man providing the passion behind the organisation is Roy Sloan. A man on a mission to protect his backyard, ensuring future generations can enjoy the Fiordland National Park. Sloan is the global gold standard in deer management and conservation. Living and working in Winton, Southland, Roy volunteers between 20 – 30 hours a week, on top of his full-time work, to the FWF.

Learn more HERE | Follow them @fiordland_wapiti_foundation

CITIZEN COLLECTIVE

Citizen’s mission is to stop needless food waste, rescuing foods that would otherwise go to waste and upcycling them into tasty, low-impact, high-quality food and beverages. Their vision is to become New Zealand’s leading ‘food upcycle’ organisation and work as a collective, partnering with like-minded, passionate organisations, like BurgerFuel.

Citizen’s first focus was New Zealand's most wasted product, bread. After brewing their craft beer from rescued bread, they repurpose the by-product from the brewing process into a nutritious, high quality, spent-grain flour. The spent flour constituting 4% of BurgerFuel’s rescued artisan bun. Going from Bread, into Beer, into Buns!

Citizen’s other focus is the country’s second most wasted items, fruit and vegetables. Rescuing export quality wonky Central Otago cherries to create a Rescued Cherry Sauce, they have also teamed up with growers in Pukekohe to provide rescued grated carrots for Wild Heart.

Those same rescued cherries have also been repurposed in the BurgerFuel X Citizen Rescued Cherry Cola, every can saving 29 cherries from going to waste!

Learn more HERE | Follow them @heycitizens

WITHWILD FIORDLAND WAPITI

WITHWILD brings premium products from nature, sourced from a place of raw purity at the edge of the world, Te Waipounamu/South Island, New Zealand.

Every year, wild animals are culled to help protect precious native flora and fauna in our national parks. WITHWILD chooses to honour and respect free-roaming animals by acknowledging them as a valuable food resource. A treasured slice from the natural world, bringing our people and communities one step closer to the taste of wild Aotearoa.

WITHWILD believes that the purest food is found in the wild. And we believe that when we work together to maintain the balance of nature, we can protect our wild environments for generations to come. These things are not only possible, but necessary. That’s why there’s a ‘give back’ to the organisations that maintain and preserve New Zealand’s national parks with every WITHWILD product.

Their philosophy is simple. We can’t tame nature. Let’s work with her, instead.

From the wild. For the wild. WITHWILD

Follow them @withwild_

We aim to raise a $30,000 donation for the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation to complete essential work in the famous Nitz Valley, Fiordland. The protective work benefiting native flora and fauna such as Whio, Kiwi, Weka, Kea and Kaka.

Money raised will go towards a new stoat trapping line with 55 traps to be built, installed, and managed. So, if you’re ever tramping through Fiordland, try spotting the BurgerFuel logo brandished on a trap.

The money raised will also go towards purchasing and installing new digital trail cameras to track ecosystem impact and ongoing possum control and monitoring through fauna surveys in collaboration with DOC and Kea & Kiwi citizen surveys.