“Never judge a book by its cover “- as the popular saying goes – has admittedly been neglected long enough by the commercial sector as fruits and vegetables of irregular shapes and sizes do not make their way in store shelves.
These ‘ugly’ produce are either discarded or fed to the pigs, but recent campaigns regarding food wastage may yet allow these imperfect and misshapen food items to have the chance of being marketed and sold for human consumption.
Whole Foods, one of the leading organic product stores in the United States, announced that it will begin marketing ‘cosmetically challenged’ food in partnership with Imperfect Produce to conduct experimental sales with a few of its stores in Northern California by April 2016.
A Whole Foods spokesperson confirmed that the negotiations are underway with stakeholders to promote the primary aim of eliminating the problem of food wastage.
Consumers may expect prices for these food items to be marked down by 30% to 50% and the good thing about this is that they all have the same nutritional values only that these produce ‘do not look good’ compared to their ‘better looking’ counterparts being sold in the markets.
Imperfect Produce claimed that 1 in every 5 fruit is laid to waste because it does not look perfect for the market shelves and this makes up 20% of the annual food production for America and has been a neglected problem since.
They added that this two-pronged approach is a win-win solution for both the suppliers and the consumers as it helps increase the potential for productivity for farmers and the produce becomes more affordable to the consumers, with the end result of minimizing food wastage.
This campaign came in the heels of a similar venture by French produce market Intermarche that earlier launched a similar product called Inglorious Food and Vegetables, with the same concept in mind of marketing these cosmetically-challenged fruits and make it available to consumers at reduced prices.
Australia also followed suit, after it reported that they are losing up to S10 billion to food wastage every year, which includes disposing these hideous-looking fruits and vegetables.
In the United States, organic waste rank second in the component for landfills and has become the largest source of methane emissions that contribute to global warming and climate change.
This equates to a 30 to 40 percent volume of the US food supply that goes to waste.
This new deal with imperfect produce will give people the chance to understand that these food items are packed with the same amount of nutrients and flavour– regardless of its size or shape.
Image Credit: From Ugly To Hip: Misfit Fruits And Veggies Coming To Whole Foods – NPR News
The post Don’t Discard Ugly Fruits And Veggies appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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