wait so now the fucking article summary is now a conversation against the post?
this twitter shit is a fucking terrible presentation medium, additionally
Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
191–200 of 229 posts
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
That only applies to "potentially hazardous food". A baked good doesn't fit the definition. Butter in the recipe doesn't matter. A cream filling might, so perhaps that caused some confusion? Also "four hours" isn't really an "end of the day" thing... And if they're in temperature control at the end of the day, then four hours is plenty of time to get them distributed and consumed.
Baked goods, like cakes, are made fresh each morning. They are served at room temperature. At the end of the day, they are thrown out because the health code says so. 4 hours is the Illinois limit. Here's an FDA list of TCS (Temperature Controlled for Safety) foods: https://www.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/List... Note butter, whipped cream, eggs, all part of frosting and fillings for baked goods. Here…
From a chemical standpoint: butter/eggs mixed with sugar (even if it's cooked) is substantially different and more likely to spoil than butter/egg mixed with flour and cooked.
You should throw out cakes and cream puffs. You can donate bagels and challah bread.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#193Even high end restaurants will take these things that are not presentable on a plate and turn them into soups, sauces, etc. because any decent chef knows that "dented cans" and ugly fruit taste the same as pretty ones. It's the everyday routine.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Supersizing produce for economic reasons is a myth. Oversized fruits and vegetables mostly exist because they were "missed" during the previous harvesting round. A cucumber that is ripe but isn't harvested because it was hiding behind some leaves, will be oversized the next day. Same goes for a lot of other produce. Farmers receive the highest price for produce that's the "right" size. Other sizes will be auctioned o…
> A cucumber that is ripe but isn't harvested because it was hiding behind some leaves, will be oversized the next day. A year ago I would've shrugged this off as an exaggeration, but after my wife decided to grow cucumbers last summer I've seen first hand how fast those things grow.
Feel lazy one day, wake up to little shop of horrors the next.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
This is precisely what the OP (with expertise in this field) is stating.
See the statement about Honeycrisp apples.
Yes there are varieties more suited to different purposes, and there may be some that are grown specifically for those other purposes (e.g. a variety might be selectively bred with higher pectin for jam-making), but commercial producers of things like soup, pies, jams etc are a prime destination for ugly instances of supermarket-shelf varieties.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#196I 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, fresh food tends to be healthier than processed.
There's a lot of caveat there, because it depends on the kind of processing. For example, in terms of vitamin content, fresh produce usually compares unfavorably with frozen produce, and often comes in behind canned food as well. Yes, freezing and canning are both forms of processing, but they're forms of processing that are meant to preserve the food. The same things that protect it from spoilage can also protect some of the more volatile nutrients from breaking down.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#197I saw this article about the ugly food getting thrown out from the BBC, citing a study about food waste from the University of Edinburgh. So who am I to believe? The University of Edinburgh or some Twitter ranter? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45238...
On one hand, the BBC and most universities tend to be fairly reliable sources of information. On the other, this Twitter user’s argument is fairly logical and, despite the coarse wording, isn’t really making any extraordinary claims. Her statements make sense and align with my own observations, as well as my understanding of economics. Is it possible they’re both right? These matters are rarely as simple as they seem…
Her arguments are very reasonable and truthy sounding, I agree. The thing is that the harder I try to get my story straight on food, the more convoluted the story becomes, and this item is illustrative of that.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#198This 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?
I'm having trouble finding an article on that, do you have a link?
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#199There’s some interesting work on food, mainly produce, supply chain management to more effectively prevent losses.
Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
That's a good point. I can see how it would be really crop and situation dependent.
Since we're talking about bad things that can happen with old fruit - one more story where composting is truly awful. There was a lawsuit in these parts a few years ago where several hunters were severely burned after falling through into a pile of decomposing grape mash. Apparently it can reach temperatures in excess of 500° when highly concentrated: