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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

#171

Post by gilrain »

benj111 wrote: post #52

I suppose theres another angle not mentioned here. Currently fresh food buyers are basically subsidising processed food manufacturers, making the former relatively more expensive compared to the latter. Any move to consume uglier foods would increase competition and prices at the lower end, making fresh food relatively cheaper. From a dietary point of view this is good, fresh food tends to be healthier than processed…

From a dietary point of view this is good, [assuming you can still afford to eat].

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

#173

Post by hopler »

vincnetas wrote: post #35
godelski wrote: post #6

I seriously wish I knew how to buy B grade food. Slightly misshapen tomatoes at a discounted price? Sign me up. I feel like I'm not the only one too.

Just speculating here without any knowledge. But this question made me think. So let's say food industry has lots of "ugly" (whatever that means) fruits that are not sold directly but used in other products. And because of that they are sold much cheaper. Then along comes someone, and notices that: "hey theres a huge amount of fruits that are being sold very cheap. Is there a way i could sell then for more?" So you s…

Doesn't really make sense from the seller side. There isn't more profit in driving down price and demand for perfect looking produce. It would just smooth out the pricing and eliminate the premium for fancy looking produce

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

#174

Post by hopler »

m_eiman wrote: post #55

I didn't see any numbers anywhere, so I'll add this one: according to a recent show on Swedish television, about 30% of all food produced is wasted somewhere along the way to our mouths. "Ugly fruit doesn't sell" is just one part of it, there's waste all along the chain of production, and not least in the homes. Modern society tends to interpret "best before" as "poison after", which leads to a lot of food being need…

That's 10% of consumption, a non-issue.

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

#175

Post by sct202 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #132
suvelx wrote: 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…

Sounds like poor management TBH; they can know exactly how much milk they need to stock to minimize waste.

But there's a balance between maximizing sales with more safety stock and minimizing waste with less, because of uneven demand fluctuations.

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

#176

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#177

Post by nchlswu »

klmr wrote: post #137

> 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 So I shop a lot at “grocery stores that poor people shop at” (in Europe, for what it’s worth; maybe the US is different). And the produce sold there is, for the most part, very different from the “ugly” fruit and veg that sustainability hipsters ar…

it sounds like the poorer quality produce you're describing is just coming from lower quality farms?

I have no clue how the supply chain works, but I don't think produce from the same source is separated by the quality you're describing.

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

#178

Post by benj111 »

gilrain wrote: post #171
benj111 wrote: post #52

I suppose theres another angle not mentioned here. Currently fresh food buyers are basically subsidising processed food manufacturers, making the former relatively more expensive compared to the latter. Any move to consume uglier foods would increase competition and prices at the lower end, making fresh food relatively cheaper. From a dietary point of view this is good, fresh food tends to be healthier than processed…

From a dietary point of view this is good, [assuming you can still afford to eat].

I spent some time reasoning whether this would increase costs for those at the very bottom.

I suppose it could, assuming they didn't buy mote fresh produce instead of processed. But in Tha situation they either don't want to change their diet (so its their choice?) or they already have an ideal diet, no processed food to stop consuming. I'm not sure how big the latter population is though.

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

#179

Post by chasd00 »

jchw wrote: post #51
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 think it's pretty simple: People absolutely love drama. Calling someone out feels good, and people love to follow along. It gets irritating when people make super broad accusations like this, but I believe it's in a similar vein to how politics on Twitter is mostly people trying to out snark everyone else. In this situation I'd say the consumer is the victim of being misled, but you stir up a lot more people by acc…

"Dirty little secrets Dirty little lies We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie We love to cut you down to size We love dirty laundry

We can do "The Innuendo" We can dance and sing When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing We all know that Kraft is king Give us dirty laundry!"

Dirty Laundry - Don Henley

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

#180

Post by sct202 »

rococode wrote: post #33
maxk42 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subscribed to this for several months. 90%+ of what they shipped me was ordinary surplus produce. Even the "ugly" carrots they sent me were ... just ordinary carrots, as far as I could tell.

Sounds like you stopped using it, could you share why? I'm curious if their service was good.

I used it for several months and tracked the prices, and with delivery and the box fee it's about the same price as the grocery store except that you have limited choices and they tend to cycle between the same things. Most of the vegetables were legit normal looking, but a lot of the fruits were small.
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