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Startups see potential in 'ugly food' rejected by supermarkets

Madison Park
Special to USA TODAY

Giant watermelons ripen on the field but they won’t make it to market – too big to fit in the fridge. The same fate befalls curvy cucumbers and tomatoes that exceed the width of a burger bun.

Too big, too small, a slightly off color, an unusual shape – in the U.S., the future of such "ugly food" is grim: it rots in the field, gets eaten by livestock or is simply tossed in the trash or compost.

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While European supermarkets have adopted the ugly foods movement by selling produce with superficial blemishes, most major American chains have refused to embrace the runner-ups in the fruit and veg beauty pageants – until now.

Whole Foods Market says it will sell the "ugly" produce that would otherwise go to waste at a handful of its Northern California stores beginning in late April. The pilot project, in collaboration with Imperfect Produce, an Emeryville, Calif.-based startup, marks one of the first forays by a national grocery chain into the movement to cut food waste.

U.S. supermarkets generally reject produce that doesn't meet their standards for appearance or earn top U.S. Department of Agriculture grades, leading to waste. The U.S. trashes about a third of its food supply, according to USDA estimates. The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental action group, calculates food waste at 40%. NRDC's Dana Gunders,a staff scientist who focuses on food for NRDC, compares it to buying five bags of groceries, dropping two of them in the parking lot and then walking away.

Whole Foods does use the less attractive produce for its prepared foods, juices and smoothies, the company said in a statement. But last year, an advocacy campaign called #WhatTheFork urged Whole Foods and other stores, including Walmart, to give the ugly produce a starring role. The Whole Foods pilot will put the less comely fruit and vegetables on display in the store's produce department for the first time.

"Our goal is zero waste and we're always looking for ways to reduce our collective impact and positively influence the industry," Whole Foods said in a statement.

Companies such as Imperfect Produce, tapped by Whole Foods, and Hungry Harvest, a Maryland startup, believe the time is ripe for the fruit and vegetable also-rans to grab their moment in the spotlight. The companies act as brokers and go-betweens, finding loving homes for the second-tier produce.

Hungry Harvest, a two-year-old Maryland startup featured on the show Shark Tank in January, delivers local produce to residents in Philadelphia and the D.C. area for  $15 to $35 box. Hungry Harvest plans to expand to New York this summer. It also donates one meal to charity for every bag sold.

When Capay Organics, a farm near Sacramento, Calif., couldn’t sell its turnips because of their overly voluptuous tops, sales manager Aly Hein turned to Imperfect Produce rather than lose her entire crop. Farms discount such produce to recoup some of the costs.  Whether they earn a profit depends on factors like the market price for the crops and cost of labor.

“The worst is that there are so many impoverished people that could be eating all this food,” Hein said. “Sadly, it’s going to waste.”

Imperfect Produce, which opened in 2015, delivers cosmetically imperfect fruits and vegetables to the homes of about 2,200 Bay Area customers at prices generally lower than grocery stores. For Whole Foods, the company will likely bundle the fruits and vegetable is mesh net bags with Imperfect's branding to differentiate it from Whole Foods' products.

"I'm optimistic in terms of the future of America taking hold of our ugly produce," Imperfect's CEO Ben Simon said.

To make a real dent in the food waste issue, supermarkets should relax their overall cosmetic standards, Gunders said.

“It’s worth stores trying it out and giving customers a chance to show they’re willing to purchase that product,” she said. “I think farmer’s markets demonstrate that consumers have much higher tolerance for cosmetically imperfect produce than grocery stores give us credit for.”

So far, it's been a tough sell.

The Whole Foods experiment marks Imperfect's second attempt at winning over the American consumer. In a pilot program last year with Raley’s, a California supermarket, Imperfect Produce provided blemished produce at a discount. But the experiment folded a few months later. Raley’s did not respond to request for comment.

Supermarkets in France, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, and Australia have no qualms about selling the second-tier produce as a way to reduce food waste. And their customers bought in.

“There have been huge campaigns in the UK in the last few years," said Emily Leib, deputy director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. "It’s been really looking at why do we have so much waste?”

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Supermarkets have been reluctant to adopt the ugly foods movement largely due to the fickle tastes of American consumers. Food waste experts say customers often select their go-to grocery stores based on their impression of the produce department.

“All food businesses are consumer driven,” said Meghan Stasz, senior director of sustainability for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “If consumers ask for it, we will certainly provide it.”

One supermarket has made a go of it. The non-profit Daily Table opened in June in Dorchester, Mass., using recovered food from manufacturers and distributors to sell discounted prepared meals and groceries in low-income communities.

The response so far has been “overwhelmingly positive,” said Fredi Shonkoff, the store’s senior director. It plans to expand the concept to Boston and other cities.

As consumers grow more aware of waste and increasingly value environmental stewardship, Stasz thinks consumer preferences will change.

"We're seeing some great initiatives with pushes to educate consumers that the curved carrot is just as good as the perfectly shaped carrot," she said.

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