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Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

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Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#71

Post by Kalium »

loosetypes wrote: post #63
Sharlin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Products nearing the best before date are typically sold at a discount at least where I’m from. And those that don’t get sold but are still edible get increasingly donated to the needy instead of just being thrown away. There’s a big movement going on to reduce retail waste. In France grocery stores are required by law to donate food that doesn’t get sold.

I always remember that Noah's Bagels would make certain to throw away excess bagels at the end of the day. It's probably, unfortunately, America-specific, but when I asked why staff said if they gave away "old" baked-goods and someone were to get sick they would be liable to lawsuit.

Generally speaking, there are Good Samaritan laws that avoid that. The issue more often is that stores don't want to deal with the headaches that can stem from being a place for those who are unhoused to congregate for free food. It's rarely good for business.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#72

Post by suvelx »

loosetypes wrote: post #32

It's good that the less shopper-favorable produce is put to use, but I'm always curious about the somewhat analogous-to-ugly-fruits case with milk: Looking at the dairy fridge and choosing solely by expiration date. Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does? But do you actually care about food waste if every time you make that decision…

This is just bad produce management from the shops.

Longer-Expiry products at the back, newer at the front.

But I know at my local supermarkets nobody gives a shit, Frequently I'll buy the same product twice in a row, and the item on the second day expires before the one on the first.

All their staff just chucks the new shit at the front. The milk is even worse, as they just combine the half-empty early-date trollies and wheel out a fresh late-date one.

I'd say it all gets sold. But I have a /marvellous/ view of their bins. They throw so much stuff out.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#73

Post by ginko »

travisjungroth wrote: post #37
loosetypes wrote: post #32

It's good that the less shopper-favorable produce is put to use, but I'm always curious about the somewhat analogous-to-ugly-fruits case with milk: Looking at the dairy fridge and choosing solely by expiration date. Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does? But do you actually care about food waste if every time you make that decision…

I have never done this, and I gently suggest you stop. Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? If the milk with the soonest expiration date was the only one available, would you buy it or just walk out without milk? A good rule to avoid tragedy of the commons situations is to think “what if everyone did as I do?”. This is a pretty classic example here.

>Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration?

The only thing I use milk for is in my morning coffee. I usually buy half liter cartons and even then I often end up with the milk going bad before I'm through with it. So yeah, I do.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#74

Post by pasta »

In the Netherland, France, Belgium and other EU countries they started selling ugly food again.

They are sold very cheap like 'outlaws' or expensive as 'real bio'.

What I understand is that we have 3 visual classes. Some in the third class can be sold by law but as seller you have to check every peace. So it is more easy to skip that class. And just to be save most supermarkets just skipped the second class also.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#75

Post by yzb »

feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

By calling something classist you're showing you're a leftist, which is necessary in certain circles where not being politically aligned is a death sentence; see "virtue signalling": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#76

Post by oasisbob »

iNerdier wrote: post #53
feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

I work for a farmer who makes apple juice of various varieties. He used to use raspberries that were ‘seconds’ which wouldn’t fit supermarket criteria for selling by themselves. He pressed and used them for juicing for one variety he made. As of last year the farm he bought them off no longer bothers to harvest seconds because it’s not worth it to them in the cost of labour to pick, sort and sell them. So yes in cert…

How is the farm harvesting? Raspberries are especially perishable - especially when damaged. Eventually I think everyone involved needs to admit that the economics just don't work, and that at smaller scales, composting isn't awful.

For large raspberry growers here in WA, most berries are mechanically harvested and sent off to be processed into juices, extracts, concentrates, etc. One producer I know ships them over the Cascades in milk tankers. (Faster, fresher, less handling.) They can go from the farm to the factory line in under eight hours.

Berries by the pint, and even IQF (individually-quick frozen) berries command a HUGE premium, and are often hand harvested. You can't take those labor costs downmarket and make the economics work.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#77

Post by depthcharge »

travisjungroth wrote: post #37
loosetypes wrote: post #32

It's good that the less shopper-favorable produce is put to use, but I'm always curious about the somewhat analogous-to-ugly-fruits case with milk: Looking at the dairy fridge and choosing solely by expiration date. Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does? But do you actually care about food waste if every time you make that decision…

I have never done this, and I gently suggest you stop. Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? If the milk with the soonest expiration date was the only one available, would you buy it or just walk out without milk? A good rule to avoid tragedy of the commons situations is to think “what if everyone did as I do?”. This is a pretty classic example here.

To add to your point, I notice many people obey expiry dates in a strangely strict manner. I regularly consume dairy products (including milk) that are 5-7 days past their expiry date. If it looks/smells/tastes fine, just use it. I don't even remember a dairy product ever going bad in my fridge. I've heard people say they immediately throw away things like yogurt as soon as the expiry date passed, which I find totally ridiculous.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#78

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

alexashka wrote: post #36
feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

Twitter has had enough people posting in anger, that it has become culturally acceptable for anyone to do it. I can't help but wonder about the upbringing of the folks who act out in anger, in public (posting on the internet is public). Would you talk this way around your parents, peers, kids? I hope not. The internet is not any different - they're someone's parents, peers and kids, reading your posts.

I’m guessing the kind of folks who post in anger care more for the drama they create and the followers that come with that, than their public image.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#79

Post by kalleboo »

travisjungroth wrote: post #37
loosetypes wrote: post #32

It's good that the less shopper-favorable produce is put to use, but I'm always curious about the somewhat analogous-to-ugly-fruits case with milk: Looking at the dairy fridge and choosing solely by expiration date. Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does? But do you actually care about food waste if every time you make that decision…

I have never done this, and I gently suggest you stop. Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? If the milk with the soonest expiration date was the only one available, would you buy it or just walk out without milk? A good rule to avoid tragedy of the commons situations is to think “what if everyone did as I do?”. This is a pretty classic example here.

When I was single, yeah. I regularly had to pour out milk I didn't have time to drink before it went bad.

Now that I have a kid, I'm happy to buy the discounted short-expiration-date stuff since it'll be gone in 2 days no matter what.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#80

Post by mrob »

suvelx wrote: post #72
loosetypes wrote: post #32

It's good that the less shopper-favorable produce is put to use, but I'm always curious about the somewhat analogous-to-ugly-fruits case with milk: Looking at the dairy fridge and choosing solely by expiration date. Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does? But do you actually care about food waste if every time you make that decision…

This is just bad produce management from the shops. Longer-Expiry products at the back, newer at the front. But I know at my local supermarkets nobody gives a shit, Frequently I'll buy the same product twice in a row, and the item on the second day expires before the one on the first. All their staff just chucks the new shit at the front. The milk is even worse, as they just combine the half-empty early-date trollies…

But they are all sold for the same price, and it takes about 1 second to reach for the back of the shelf. There's nothing stopping this, and I refuse to pay the same price for an inferior product. There should be automatically applied increasing discounts as the product approaches the expiration date, so there's some reason beyond laziness to pick the less fresh ones.
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