Ugly fruits and veggies

Landfills are filling up everyday with food that we are throwing out either due to it expiring or we cooked too much and can’t eat the rest or the portion size is too big or we don’t like eating leftovers but did you know another reason they are filling up is because a lot of ugly fruits and veggies are thrown out.

Ugly fruits and veggies tend to be items that don’t look the same as the regular crop for example a crooked cucumber or a fat banana or too small berries could all classify as ugly but if they just look different does that mean they don’t have their nutrients? Of course not! However, every shopper and retailer knows that having ugly fruit in their aisle would get a pass over and thereby taking up retail space and leading to higher operating costs. Plus, farmers too know that their sales are coming from high quality, good products versus these ugly fruits so where do they end up—the landfill?

Today, with a growing awareness of ugly veggies and fruits and their disposal, there are a few companies out there that are trying to help curb this food waste. Two companies out there, Imperfect Produce (https://www.imperfectproduce.com/) and Hungry Harvest (https://www.hungryharvest.net/) provide customized boxes to you of ugly fruits and veggies and therefore are helping the environment. There is even an iPhone app called goMkt (https://www.gomkt.com/) that will help you track down surplus food and be able to purchase that item—just another way to prevent food waste.

Everyone has a right to eat healthy and nutritious food so why are we discarding perfectly good food that can be consumed but isn’t, just because it is ugly?