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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

#91
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…

The offputting tone wouldn't be quite as objectionable (imo) if the argument wasn't so FUCKing wrong. > Most "ugly" produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam, ice cream, etc. You think that stuff gets made from the pretty fruit & veggies?! jeebus, think about it for a minute I've thought about it, and yes, that stuff gets made from the pretty fruit & veggies. Sure, a LOT of it gets made from the rejected "ug…

>This sentence from the same person who just used the phrase "classist as fuck"!?

There's nothing classist about acknowledging the fact that poor and rich people often shop in different stores.

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

#92

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…

It doesn't applies to every products (and it's probably different depending on which country you live in) but you also have to check if it's a "best before" or a "used by" date. I've ate dairy products 1-2 weeks after the "best before" date and they were exactly like the day I bought them. If it doesn't smell / looks funky it's usually fine to eat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expiration_date

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

#93
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends where you live and your household consumption . In Sweden milk expires usually 3-7 days after you buy it. If you are alone and don't drink that much, it does make a big difference buying the one that expires in 7 days vs the one in 3-4 days (there is no discount except if it expires 1 day after purchasing)

Very true. The last milk I bought was Darigold here in the US, and the sell-by date was sometime in March. I don't know what they're doing to extend its shelf life so much, but as a childless sometimes-uses-milk home, I love it, and couldn't care less about the exact dates.

Maybe you bought UHT milk? That has a shelf life of months.

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I know a bakery operator who said the health code required throwing away unsold baked goods with butter content at the end of the day, when I asked him about donating to the homeless. It's not evil or stupid. It's the law.

I'd want to see a specific law citation before I believe that. I'm sure you're trying to report what he said accurately, but he may have been misleading or mistaken.

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

#95

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…

> Naturally, I choose the latest to expire to maximize my options within the consumption time-frame. And I think everyone does?

I have recently started to deliberately mix ages when I see a variation, knowing that at least some of it will be consumed pretty soon and order will be assured by the way I arrange out fridge contents. It feels unjustifiably good.

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

#96
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…

>So yes in certain cases this fruit is being wasted and people paying more for it would cause less of it to rot.

So how do you know they wouldn't just plant more if people paid more?

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

#97
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? Absolutely. Even when getting the milk with the farthest away expiration data I rarely end up finishing a whole carton of milk until 1 or 2 days after that date. Without those few extra days, half the milk risks getting poured down the sink. If the milk with the soonest expiration date was the only one available, would you buy it or just walk out without mil…

Milk goes bad much quicker once opened though, check if they have smaller bottles available. It's often more expensive per liter but at least it doesn't end up in the sink.

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

#98
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cattle feed makes that point a lot stronger than jam does.

Which point? That it's being wasted, or that it's being repurposed? Because meat production sure sounds very wasteful to me.

Meat won't stop being fed just because there's no ugly produce, so whether meat production is wasteful is kinda irrelevant. Ugly produce not wasted on cattle will just lead to more fields being wasted to grow food for cattle.

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

#99
post #80
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I refuse to pay the same price for an inferior product.

Even if you're going to use it long before the date matters, so you get an identical experience anyway?

> 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.

That sounds like a bunch of labor that will make things more expensive. If they really want to trade effort for getting two-day-older stock cleared out, they can just let the shelf get closer to empty before restocking.

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

#100
post #43
post #19

One of my roommates in college was from Michoacan MX, and worked Washington state, Oregon and California's Central Valley/Watsonville growing up. At fruit stands this was standard practice.. inedible/bad fruit was tossed out but damaged fruit went into pies, salads and other products because it wouldn't sell as well, even 30-40 years ago. The problem is manufacturers and retailers optimizing a deep supply-chain for w…

Two data points I have. My mother ran accounting for canneries. Turns out tomatoes that are too ripe for market get canned. Tomatoes that are too damaged for canning become hog food. And a friends mom worked as at a Potato processing factory, 6 million lbs of potato's in, 4 million lbs of potato products out. 1 million lbs of hog food out. The remainder is dirt and rocks. This factory had a machine to cut damaged bit…

"Unlike most kinds of canned produce, which pale in comparison to their fresh counterparts, a great can of diced tomatoes offers flavor almost every bit as intense as ripe, in-season fruit."[0]

Just thought I'd share that canned tomatoes are delicious, better than fresh in many cases and cooks illustrated has some tremendous analysis on all varieties of canned tomatoes.

[0]https://www.cooksillustrated.com/taste_tests/510-canned-dice...

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