Stop tossing foods that turn brown, here’s why

People often tend to avoid apples with brown spots, assuming that they taste bad. In a new study a UCPH researcher has emphasized that there’s nothing wrong with oddly shaped or bruised apples and if we are to end food waste, we’ll need to upend that assumption.

Most people skip the spotted ones and select those that are perfectly yellow. This is because emotions play an oversized role in our shopping decisions, according to a new study by Danish and Swedish researchers.

“We choose food based upon an expectation of what it will taste like that is bound to our feelings. So, if we expect a brown banana to not match the taste of a yellow one, we opt for the latter,” explains Karin Wendin, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Food Science, and one of the researchers behind the study.

Wendin laments this waste because brown fruits are not bad fruit: “Bruised or oddly shaped fruit can easily be used. They usually taste just as good as nicely looking specimens. And in cases when an apple is bruised or a bit floury in texture, one can still use it for juice or pie. When an “ugly” piece of fruit gets tossed, it becomes food waste, which is a big problem-- including financially. This is why we need to work on re-evaluating our feelings about brown and oddlyshaped fruit,” she says.