Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by jolmg » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 4:32 PM UTC

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…

> In another poster, the copy reads “The entire fish is salmon.” This is straightforward copy reminding readers that salmon is delicious head to tail, so all of it should be eaten.

I heard once that some steaks sold are actually separate pieces of meat glued together and made to look like a natural steak. Maybe this happens with fish as well. Wouldn't "the entire fish is salmon" be referring to that there's no pieces of other fish glued to the fillet? I mean, perhaps there's a legal technicality where it's permissible to sell a product as salmon when at least 10% is actual salmon or so.

It's kind of like how all those sweeteners sold as being stevia are actually only like 1 or 2% stevia.

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

#202

Post by plopz » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

rleigh wrote: post #166

spiderfarmer wrote: post #157

Earlier 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 farm up the hill from where I live produces eggs from several thousand free-range chickens, and they sell them on site with a vending machine by the dozen. They also sell "catering" eggs in trays of 30, for under half the price of a dozen standard eggs. These are irregular shapes (too elongated for "large" egg boxes) and double-yolk eggs. All perfectly tasty and edible, but cosmetically unsaleable. I'm happy to tak…

I've always been curious how people bake with non-standard size eggs. How do you translate a recipe that calls for "3 eggs" when your egg sizes are all different?

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

#203

Post by ginko » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 4:58 PM UTC

hopler wrote: post #170

ginko wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? The only thing I use milk for is in my morning coffee. I usually buy half liter cartons and even then I often end up with the milk going bad before I'm through with it. So yeah, I do.

Why not buy creamer packets?

Because they taste terrible. Plus, I'm not convinced that this is environmentally friendly.

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

#204

Post by jamiek88 » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 4:59 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #190

benj111 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not just buying it but preparing and cooking it too.

A single mother working two jobs with a small kitchen struggles to get the time to prep or to afford to buy in bulk to prep in advance.

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

#205

Post by kamaal » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

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…

>>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)?

I guess its just a way of saying they won't negotiate to sell at low prices ever. Because once you do, people use it as precedence to bargain again.

Also stifle the supply to some extent and the next time around the demand goes up.

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

#206

Post by paulcole » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #139

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.

Wrong. Rich people don’t shop. They aren’t even aware of how their fridge gets stocked. They got too many helpers! Those helpers shop at the same stores us regular folks shop at! (But seriously, is there really such stories that exist as poor/rich or are these just the same stores in different areas?)

I think you’re making a mistake confusing rich/well-off with ultra-wealthy. For the most part, rich people do their own shopping at Whole Foods not at the discount markets in China Town. Or they do Blue Apron or whatever. Ultra-wealthy people have hired help doing their daily tasks.

For example, here in Portland there’s Grocery Outlet (stocks out-of-season/discontinued/damaged/nearly expired stuff at great prices) less than 2 blocks from a Whole Foods. I shop at both but otherwise don’t see a lot of overlap in the clientele.

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

#207

Post by porpoisely » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

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'

But that's not what twitter exists to do. It's like complaining a newspaper is not an encyclopedia. Or a piece of paper enforcing an unnatural width limit. If you don't like it, don't use. Why get upset that a fork isn't a spoon?

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

#208

Post by darkerside » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #139

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.

Wrong. Rich people don’t shop. They aren’t even aware of how their fridge gets stocked. They got too many helpers! Those helpers shop at the same stores us regular folks shop at! (But seriously, is there really such stories that exist as poor/rich or are these just the same stores in different areas?)

Wealthy people don't shop, plenty of rich people do. If you're saying this, consider that others may think of you as rich.

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

#209

Post by benj111 » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:41 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #190

benj111 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not convinced that fresh produce is more expensive than processed, or that it necessarily takes longer. That is predicated on being able to cook, and having some form of kitchen. But yes there are tradeoffs.

I hope we can all agree that everyone has a right to eat. But that people don't have the right to eat steak every day. So somewhere in the middle there is a diet that people have a right to. There's a tremendous grey area in there, but I think its reasonable to expect people to prioritise a healthy diet first, although again there is a limit to that.

I'm also not sure how far your line of reasoning is from objecting to taxes on cigarettes or alcohol, on the basis it will hit less well off people hardest. I don't want to deny poorer people nice things, but that shouldn't be carte blanche to keep 'bad' things cheap.

Half the problem is that processed food encompasses coke, chocolate, cake as well as frozen peas and baked beans. So we could just be talking past each other here.

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

#210

Post by michaelt » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 5:43 PM UTC

sct202 wrote: post #175

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah, but if the 2-pint jugs of standard semi-skimmed milk are out of stock, maybe you buy the 1-pint or the 4-pint or the organic.

The customer response depends on both the product category and the time of day, for obvious reasons. And I guarantee the likes of Wal-Mart will have run studies on this and chosen the optimal ordering level for milk in their stores.