Not-So-Pretty as a Peach

Imagine you’re a strawberry. A ripe, juicy strawberry bursting with delicious flavor that you know would make someone very happy, if only they’d give you a chance. But unless you’re the right color and size, well, sorry, strawberry — odds are, you’ll never make it into the hands of a consumer, let alone into a rhubarb pie or yogurt parfait.

That’s right — not only is unsightly, misshapen, or otherwise imperfect produce weeded out along the supply chain journey from farm to table; most customers aren’t even open to the idea of eating ugly fruits and vegetables. As a result, an estimated six billion pounds of produce (more than 20% of the total amount grown for human consumption) goes uneaten simply on the grounds of its appearance.

Let’s take a closer look at how these imperfect fruits and vegetables are identified, and more importantly, how waste can be reduced at every step of the journey.

Superficial Standards

Supermarkets are much more likely to select physically flawless produce for purchase — not necessarily of their own accord, but in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) stringent evaluation system. Oddly enough, the USDA’s specifications are based on size and ripeness, rather than taste and nutrition. To cite one example, according to USDA standards, a tomato must be “mature, not overripe or soft, clean, well-developed, fairly well-formed, fairly smooth, and free from decay” just to get on the shelf.

So, knowing what a grocery store will and won’t buy, an apple farm in Washington will sort its apples in accordance with the USDA grading system. The prettiest apples are sorted into the “Extra Fancy” category, which means the apples are vibrant in color and free of rough skin or sun damage. The merely adequate apples go into the “U.S. Utility” category, which allows for minor cosmetic defects.

What happens to the apples that don’t fall into either of those two categories? Farms with connections to food banks may donate the remaining fruit, or turn it into compost. The vast majority of these bad apples, however, are unceremoniously chucked into a landfill.

Repackaging the Rejects

Instead of casting ugly fruit out, retailers on both the local level and nationwide are embracing the rejects — and so are bargain-seeking customers.

Walmart’s approach is to cheekily admit imperfection by selling boxed sets of weather-damaged “Spuglies” potatoes and slightly misshapen “I’m Perfect” apples. Walmart’s UK grocery chain sells “wonky veg” boxes, each containing 11 pounds of misshapen vegetables. Meanwhile, Andronico’s Community Markets, a grocery store chain in Northern California, sells excess produce from local farmers in large bins. In response to a series of petitions, Whole Foods in Brooklyn will soon sell their discounted “Ugly Greens.”

While grocery stores have to go to great lengths to make their fruit appealing to consumers, farmer’s markets don’t face these same hurdles. Strict beauty standards don’t apply among these shoppers, who seek authentic and organic products over cosmetic perfection. As a result, more and more major grocers are offering produce from local farmers — which may not conform to USDA standards — alongside prettier, mass-produced fruits.