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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

#181

Post by oasisbob »

icebraining wrote: post #93
oasisbob wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup, learned something. thanks!

Ultra pasteurized simply means that the milk has been heated under pressure at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time (280° for two seconds versus 167° at 15 seconds for standard pasteurized).

- http://www.darigold.com/faqs

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

#182

Post by zeroname »

neRok wrote: post #134
zeroname wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it isn't. It's the same kind of poor research that the rant is about. Those are cosmetic specifications for supermarket stock, nowhere does it say what happens with the produce that doesn't meet them. It's simply insinuated that it goes to waste, but that isn't true. The supermarkets know very well what kind of produce doesn't sell, so these specs actually prevent waste , because unsold produce that is about…

If you had watched the 2min video, you would have seen the bananas being dumped in piles - a banana mountain. Here is an article on the same video: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/war-on-waste... Other people and the original source mention food rotting because it cannot be picked before it spoils, which is probably a problem. But in the case of these bananas, they have been picked and made it all the…

The post originally linked to a youtube video of that same guy sitting in front of a laptop, researching specs. I did watch that one.

Again, even if those bananas see no other use than being dumped, that doesn’t mean they would’ve been consumed by actual humans if it hadn’t been for those standards. Some other organism will consume them instead.

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

#183

Post by schnevets »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #147

This is a comment about the presentation of this content, but twitter threads are the worst method for presenting a coherent and compelling argument. They enforce unnatural character limits, lack formatting and links, and the whole twitter echo system encourages "hot takes", eg. 'The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK'

100% agreed. Dr. Taber's thread were a response to someone named Dr. Unicorn linking a Guardian article in response to someone linking a thread of "industry secrets".

It almost makes me grateful for the inevitable Vox story that just pulls Taber's comments. At least that will be in a format that people can share.

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

#185

Post by hobs »

nchlswu wrote: post #177
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.

It generally is, almost all produce is graded and sold by its grade.

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

#186

Post by peterwwillis »

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…

But the irony is so good! She's being a dick to the people she's supposedly trying to inform, telling them that their misguided acts to try to "save the wasted food" are for naught, and that they are classist. Yet claiming everyone who isn't informed has "a debilitating level of ignorance" and is classist, is classist itself! (And ableist!)

I think social media is designed to perpetuate superiority complexes. The vocal minority that post most often seem to think a lot of themselves and not much of everyone else.

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

#187

Post by threwawasy1228 »

oasisbob wrote: post #76
iNerdier wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I just wanted to chime in and comment further on your statement.

>that at smaller scales, composting isn't awful.

And note that in cases like this, having worked on an organic fruit farm, it is often very difficult to actually compost the unused fruit seconds. Very acidic fruit in large quantities does not generally make for a good compost. It requires a lot more work to deal with a mountain of lemons for instance in a compost to get a usable soil composition. Most people don't ever encounter issues like this because a households normal compost is varied enough that you won't have this problem.

A lot of times nothing will grow or you won't get a very good yield out of really acidic soil for the most part.

All this is to say that the fruit in your example is probably literally being put to no purpose whatsoever and is almost assuredly not being composted.

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

#188

Post by mimixco »

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…

The most heavily funded "ugly produce" subscription box got all the way through their Shark Tank episode without anyone even bringing this up.

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

#189

Post by moate »

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.

I'm HACCP Certified: That's an odd interpretation of the law. From the section you're quoting:

"If time only, rather than time in conjunction with temperature, is used as the public health control for a working supply of potentially hazardous food before cooking, or for ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food that is displayed or held for service for immediate consumption"

Many baked goods are not considered "potentially hazardous foods". Things filled or frosted fall into a different grouping, but most plain breads (even those including eggs or butter) are shelf stable for days. They suffer a sever drop in culinary quality (ie; stale) but they don't suffer a drop in culinary safety.

Maybe the guy is extremely risk averse, maybe his area has a very zealous food safety department, but it seems like he's not super interested in trying to make this happen (which is fine, he can spend his time doing whatever he want).

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

#190

Post by darkerside »

benj111 wrote: post #178
gilrain wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not everybody simply has the option (budget) to buy and eat healthier. I don't totally disagree with your points, but there are tradeoffs here too.
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