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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

#121

Post by whiskeyocelot »

skookumchuck wrote: post #107
Dylan16807 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"The food shall be cooked and served, served if ready to eat, or discarded within 4 hours from the point in time when the food is removed from temperature control;" https://www.ehso.uic.edu/UserFiles/Servers/Server_82316/File... pg 36 It's in a different state (each has their own code), but it'll do.

The section you cite applies to 'potentially hazardous foods', which generally are foods held at hot or cold temperature, not baked goods held at room temperature (even baked goods with butter in them).

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

#122

Post by zeroname »

kamaal wrote: post #105
jacquesm wrote: post #10

The ugliest fruits never make it to the market. Step-son of greengrocer here. Really, the most clear example to me is the fact that perfectly good fruits and vegetables get 'turned over' during harvest season because they do not fetch the minimum amount and are turned into cattle feed.

In India, it goes beyond that. Supply chains are extremely ineffective, and farmers basically sell to middle men. Often these are sold in chain to several other people before they go to the market. Many times the farmers are given such a low ball offer, that is basically expecting them to sell for loss. The farmer does the obvious. Takes their produce, dump in a lake near by as garbage, because it often doesn't econo…

> Many times the farmers are given such a low ball offer, that is basically expecting them to sell for loss. The farmer does the obvious. Takes their produce, dump in a lake near by as garbage, because it often doesn't economic make sense to take it back.

That doesn't make any economic sense either. How is "selling at a loss" (i.e. taking in less money than it costs to produce) worse than dumping the produce (taking in no money whatsoever)?

There has to be some other factor at play here.

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

#123

Post by selimthegrim »

erikbe wrote: post #44

This was actually (part of) MUJI's concept at launch. An example is selling broken-off mushrooms: "For example, there was a poster of dried shiitake mushrooms that were slightly damaged during the production process. In the Japanese market, only perfectly round shiitake were sold, but MUJI sold imperfectly shaped shiitake because they taste just as delicious. In another poster, the copy reads “The entire fish is salm…

Isn’t this a cautionary tale because MUJI ended up buying Japan’s entire broken mushroom output and had to buy whole ones in order to break them up themselves?

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

#124

Post by selimthegrim »

zeroname wrote: post #122
kamaal wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In India, it goes beyond that. Supply chains are extremely ineffective, and farmers basically sell to middle men. Often these are sold in chain to several other people before they go to the market. Many times the farmers are given such a low ball offer, that is basically expecting them to sell for loss. The farmer does the obvious. Takes their produce, dump in a lake near by as garbage, because it often doesn't econo…

> Many times the farmers are given such a low ball offer, that is basically expecting them to sell for loss. The farmer does the obvious. Takes their produce, dump in a lake near by as garbage, because it often doesn't economic make sense to take it back. That doesn't make any economic sense either. How is "selling at a loss" (i.e. taking in less money than it costs to produce) worse than dumping the produce (taking…

They don’t want a “kick me” sign on their back?

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

#125

Post by C1sc0cat »

icebraining wrote: post #83
vasco wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the damage? What does it matter which fruits are bought first at the supermarket?

The ugly fruit movement is much bigger than that, and has its own markets and sale areas. Farmers (often in collaboration with startups (not all for-profit)) will divert this produce to sell to the middle-class people worried about this, since they pay more than the jam makers, but at the end of the market day some will throw away leftovers which are not worth the time to haul back, sort, etc. So it can actually incr…

Are not you assuming the varieties used for canning etc are the same for sale in supermarkets.

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

#126

Post by Cthulhu_ »

warp_factor wrote: post #116

I thought those sets of tweets interesting and would love to have the views of other people in this field. I have some friends in silicon valley that subscribed to this online delivery service for ugly produce: https://www.imperfectproduce.com It looks to me like a mix of too much disposable income, and getting brag rights at dinner party for virtue signaling.

Mostly virtue signaling, and a clever way for the producer / seller to actually get more money for their produce than "nice looking" would - a LOT more than if it were used in a factory product where it would normally end up in.

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

#127

Post by C1sc0cat »

zeroname wrote: post #111
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…

> It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." If you start a social movement, that's the point where you should do some basic research. > While the content is interesting, I find the condescending tone off-putting. Pack it up fellows, the tone police has arrived! > Are there advantages to this communication style that I'm missing? Ordinary people love it when affl…

Amen also being straight and to the point is not always condescending

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

#128

Post by Cthulhu_ »

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.

A bakery will still try to optimize supply and demand as much as possible; machine learning algorithms can help with things like that as well (predicting demand). For a bagel shop it'll also help if they can produce something on short notice.

Of course, said shops will also need to have something on display at all times to lure customers in, so there will always be some waste. As long as the percentage of waste remains low it should be fine. Besides, food waste isn't too bad for the environment (relatively), it's fully biodegradable.

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

#129

Post by TeMPOraL »

krustyburger wrote: post #101
ryanlol wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

The notion that frugality implies poverty is classist, not to mention inaccurate.

Do you deny that there are both rich people and poor people? Do you deny that there are high-end, expensive grocery stores, and low-end, cheap grocery stores? Do you believe poor people shop at those high-end stores?

If you answered 3x NO, then nitpicking this point as being "classist" is, to paraphrase, dumb as fuck.

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

#130

Post by csa »

starpilot wrote: post #13
nightfly wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Know what happens to most of the produce that's edible, has enough shape to survive in transit, but looks funny? IT GOES TO THE GROCERY STORES THAT POOR PEOPLE SHOP AT"

Read: ethnic markets, 99 ranch, h-mart etc

99 ranch? Really?

My understanding is that they, like many Asian markets, have exclusive long term deals with certain farms. Maybe only for certain types of produce?

Regardless, I find a lot of their produce, especially their greens, to be incredibly fresh and incredibly good looking — much better than what I can typically find at TJs or WF.

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