MUST WATCH: Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables

Supermarkets won’t buy ‘Ugly’ fruit and vegetables, for risk of not being able to sell them. It's been estimated we waste 300 million tons of food a year. As EU declared 2014 as the European Year Against Food Waste, French supermarket Intermarche launched a brilliant campaign to win the hearts and minds of consumers.

I couldn't even imagine this flying here in North America; however, like they said.. It comes down to marketing.

This is great!

It is terrible that so many people in this world can be homeless and hungry, yet the food in the supermarkets has to look "pristine" or they fear nobody wants it.

Being in a rural area where many people have their own vegetable gardens, no, they're not all perfect, but they all taste just as good!

if only american consumers could be so open

a reply to: CALGARIAN

Of course it worked.

Does anyone have any idea how many people pass on fresh fruit and vegetables because they can't afford them?

Moreover, we waste 1/3 of all food produced globally.

If there is one thing that can be done that would be most impactful in the near term concerning the environment, it would be to solve this issue.

On another note, I happen to love the occasional odd tomatoes my organic garden produces. They are just as good and give any meal made from them some real character. Consumption, the way it was meant to be....

saw a documentary on this recently .. suggesting they do it 'cos its what the public demand / want ... pfft .. they obv didn't ask me

the farmers (here in UK) say, they are wasting perfectly good fruit and veg, 'cos they aren't perfectly round, within exact size or shape specifications ... and the expense is passed on to them, as the supermarkets don't pay them for what they don't buy .. and since the supermarkets pretty much run everything .. the farmers struggle to sell the remaining piles of 'less than perfect shaped' fruit or veg elsewhere for a decent price... perfectly nutritious as they 'may be' ...

the farmers cannot complain .. 'cos they know, and the supermarkets know, that if they stop buying from that specific farmer, it will break him, as the supermarket will be his only customer by this point .. pretty much the main source of revenue ..

as a vegan, fruit and veg id pretty much the only food i buy from supermarkets, and on top of all of this .. i still end up throwing some fruit out, cos they are picked FAAAR too early, and left to ripen later on, in the customers home, as opposed to while they are still attached to their trees branches or vines or whatever ...

for example, often the bananas that are forced on us (through lack of alternative choice), are dark green, and solid ... the idea being, they can ripen at home, and saves the supermarket any wastage ...
often, these bananas, satsumas, melons, pears, plums, etc etc .. NEVER ripen at all .. and eventually after over a week, go in the bin ...

so while this saves the supermarkets some money or hassle on buying and disposing of wasted fruits .. it certainly seems to be costing me more, on the fruits that just never ripen .. i assume due to being picked just faaaar too early than nature likes ...
But at least these fruits I throw out that never managed to ripen, are usually within the predefined shape and size specifications .. thats the main thing that consumers want ... pfft .. yeah right .. they make the rules, then tell us its what we wanted ... i'm pretty certain consumers never demanded we are often only given dark green solid bananas to choose from, that can take up to 2 weeks to become edible, if at all ...
but of course, we sit back and let them insult our intelligence, and let them 'play us' .. cos .. we have no choice ?

and also annoying .. the nutrition aspect .. again still ranting about picking far in advance of ripening time ... to pick up to a couple weeks (it appears ?) before its ripe .. to allow to ripen a week later if at all, has a huge impact on the nutrition ...

for the people that don't wait up to a week or so, for their fruits to ripen (if not picked too early as to stop them ever ripening), well .. good luck to their digestive systems having to churn through the far from ripe fruits, to try and squeeze a fraction of the nutrition they should be getting .. where as left to ripen .. with a banana for example .. (with brown spots on skin) .. it slips through the digestive system, barely noticeable .. and you get the most from it at that point too .. it gets a lot more nutrition, for faar less effort ..

this may not sound like much .. but picture this scenario long term ... the digestive system takes huge resources ... apparently up to 80% of the energy etc it converts from food, goes into the digestion process in first place, and whats left over gets used to maintain the rest of the body ...

so if what we are eating only has a fraction of the nutrition it should have, due to not being not being picked closer to ripening, and also not being fully ripe when consumed , and on top of that, to get to this less than abundant nutrition, our digestive system also has to work much harder ... well ... you work it out .. and also feel free to research this aspect .. cos i very much doubt the supermarkets nutrition experts would ever wish to tell you ... but fair to say they are very well aware of this aspect ...

i buy bananas etc in bulk .. and have like a production line of about 2 weeks worth of bananas ... so , as some start to get brown spots appearing after a week or 2, i can eat those, while the newer ones can start their 2 week wait after they're delivered ...

humans really pee me off sometimes .... same mentality throughout the whole world .. GREED put before health !!
some inspiring humans do really make me proud too tho, rays of sunshine that make the place not so bad after all .. thank goodness

on a side note ... why would a note ever be on its side ?

There's no reason ugly fruit and veggies should ever be tossed in the first place. If ugly food doesn't sell, quality control should dictate that ugly fruit be sent off to make jellies jams and compotes, pies and such. Veggies can be canned, used in soups, frozen entrees and such. But good on them for trying to open peoples eyes on quality instead of appearance. On the home front, there's no reason for the waste of imperfect or outdated fruits and veggies either. An intelligent and frugal person would toss them in a freezer for use at a later date. Or maybe use them in homemade sweet or savory dishes, soups and stews, breads, muffins and pizzas, fruit smoothies and yogurt shakes, It's clearly a problem of either not enough time or laziness. Planning ahead helps prevent waste.

Excellent. Finally.. some sense! lol
I think this *would* fly in America (if the corporations would comply).. many people cannot afford the prices they put on fruits and vegg, if they had an option of cheaper fresh produce- why not?
..and like StoutBroux says.. there is absolutely no reason it should be tossed for appearances anyway, plenty of things could be made out of it.
I have a garden and love the varied produce that comes out of it- of course it tastes just as good! only idiots would think otherwise.. oh.. wait

a reply to: CALGARIAN

Love it! Marvellous. Real food.
Yea mutants!


F&S&

Bumping this back up, as I heard an astounding statistic on the radio today that pertains...

Not only is there waste at the consumer's home or business site... fruit and veg purchased but not consumed.
There's what makes it to the market, but doesn't get put out.
There's what makes it to the wholesaler, but doesn't get sold to a retail outlet.

Then... here's the astounding part... president of the local free store food bank quotes as saying 8,000,000,000 pounds (that's billion, with a 'b') of fruit and veg don't even make it off the farm in the US! Couldn't be sold, for whatever reason, and the stuff gets plowed into the field.

He didn't cite a source for that statistic, so I am still trying to confirm from other reliable sources.

If accurate, that's like 25 lbs of fresh fruit and veg for every person in America per year.
Or, if spread amongst just those who are 'food insecure' (ie have multiple occasions per year when they have to go to a food bank or free food program or family or friends for help) that's 150 Lbs of food per year per person.

Staggering!

a reply to: CALGARIAN

Here they sell mongy fruits and vegetables in supermarkets and advertise them as "the odd bunch".....its a great idea,the wasted food each year in the western world is astounding........

www.news.com.au... n-1227143733738