1/12/2023 0 Comments Misshapen fruits and vegetables![]() The study authors were looking to maximise the selling price of carrots, even when they were misshapen, and they ran into a subset of people who were willing to pay for ‘ugly food’ as much as perfect specimens, if not more. Roe, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at The Ohio State University. “Any time you codify that cosmetically imperfect produce is somehow lesser, you’re stuck selling it for less and therefore you undermine the entire value chain,” says senior study author Brian E. Yet consumers were willing to buy a mixed-bunch of carrots, with ugly carrots at a maximum of 40 percent and better looking carrots at 60 percent, at a slight discount. The researchers’ online marketing study suggests that they have hit a sweet spot that “significantly improve willingness to pay” by highlighting two key factors: noting that purchasing ugly food reduces food waste and explaining ugly food is “natural and authentic.”Īccording to a news release by the Ohio State University “Either message alone was not effective at convincing consumers to buy misfit carrots.” These are items that are unique in size, shape or color as well as surplus crops.” It ships weekly packages to its subscribers.Ī study published in the January 2022 issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services focuses on ugly foods, noting that they “meet nutritional and safety benchmarks but deviate from cosmetic and size standards.” The difficulty of marketing ugly foods, the authors write, “frustrates field-level rescue efforts.” Perfectly Imperfect Produce calls what it does a “rescue”: “We source imperfect produce from local farms and wholesalers. Spud claims over 30 percent of fruits and vegetables in North America are rejected by supermarkets because “they aren’t attractive enough.” Spud adds that “ tastes exactly the same is just as healthy and is cheaper to buy.” According to Spud, “Imperfect produce are the misshapen, scarred or slightly bruised fruits and veggies that are thrown away by farmers and grocery stores because they are not deemed as perfect for sale.” There are companies such as Imperfect Foods, Spud Canada, and Perfectly Imperfect Produce that have decided to take on food waste. Yet these foods are just as nutritional and edible and can be used to feed families. ![]() One of the reasons that food waste occurs is that some fruit and vegetables are deemed too ugly or misshapen to be consumed. In other words: food waste emits more greenhouse gases than all single countries in the world except China and the US. According to the report, this is “significantly more than the 931 million tonnes wasted from retail, food service and households, and enough to feed the world’s 870 million undernourished four times over.”įood waste, on the other hand, “refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers.”Īccording to the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), “If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitting country in the world. The Driven to Waste report, prepared by the WWF and the UK retailer Tesco, estimates the total amount of food lost on farms to be a “staggering 1.2 billion tonnes,” which is the weight of 10 million blue whales. One third of all food produced in the world is “lost or wasted” every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2011 data.įood loss happens before food reaches the customer or the retailer. A study finds that some respondents are willing to pay for misshapen carrots – usually discarded or sold at a discount – as much as picture perfect carrots, when given the right messages.
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