We all bemoan the loss of the good tasting tomato. This started because tomatoes were picked green so that they wouldn’t be damaged and look imperfect by the time they got to the shop shelf. Sure they looked good, but were largely flavourless. Happily this is starting to change but there is an obsession with perfect looking fruit and vegetables, rather than ones which taste good. Many of us might be surprised to learn exactly how much of our fruit and vegetable produce is wasted due to not meeting strict retail quality specifications. After all – have you noticed how all the fresh fruit and vegetables look exactly the same at every supermarket and grocer around Australia? This doesn’t just happen by accident. Any farmer or home grower knows that growing perfect repeat clone versions of our fruit and vegetables is virtually impossible yet did you know that when an insect bites a capsicum and it reacts but growing a little bump, this has more flavour? Sadly, the result of high demand for this kind of produce results in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of perfectly edible fruit and vegetables being tossed every year. This wastes huge amounts of time and investment from our Australian farmers and also impacts on the environment.
Imagine yourself growing a tomato plant at home and tossing out 1 from every 4 tomatoes just because the shape wasn’t perfect, regardless of flavour or taste. Now imagine multiplying that tomato plant large enough to feed the whole of Australia and you can start to imagine how much waste is occurring on a daily basis.
This isn’t just an Australian problem and in fact happens in farms and supermarkets worldwide. Popular French supermarket, Intermarche started the food movement of selling discounted imperfect vegetables to customers to reduce food waste. They published this video on Youtube, which went viral with nearly 4.5 million views (at the time of this post).
Customers were thrilled with the initiative leading to 1.2 tons of Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables being sold on average per store within the first two days on sale. Traffic to Intermarche stores increased by 24% overall and reached 13 million people on social media within 1 month – a hugely successful campaign.
Australia has recently followed suit, with supermarket Harris Farm Market beginning their new campaign, “Imperfect Picks“, offering ‘ugly’ but quality, nutritious fruit and veg at a discounted rate of up to 50% cheaper than their regular range. Australian customers can now take advantage of the lower prices of fruit and veg as well as support their local farmers, the environment and help end food waste.
I was recently gifted a basket of HFM’s Imperfect Picks goodies and was delighted to hear of this campaign. I got to work cooking a winter vegetable curry and a fresh fruit salad. After all, if you’re juicing, blending or mashing your fruit and veg – in the end it really doesn’t matter what shape it was to begin with. Even slicing and dicing misshapen vegetables for salads and stir fries can still end up with a fairly consistent result.
I am a longtime friend of the Harris family and their retail outlets. I am delighted they have taken a step towards improving sustainability in Australian eating habits. I encourage you to support our farmers and your wallet by giving Imperfect Picks a try at least once. You may be surprised at what we were once throwing away!
Imperfect Picks – imperfectly shaped, perfectly delicious!
Try Imperfect Picks at your local Harris Farm Market, or shop online by clicking here!
You can also support your local farmers by shopping at your local farmers market. Find your closest one by clicking here.
Find more tips on Love Food Hate Waste by visiting the NSW gov website here.
This has not been a sponsored post. I was gifted this basket of Imperfect Picks by Harris Farm Markets.
