Third of fruit and veg binned before it gets to the shops
4.5m tonnes of ‘ugly’ food ditched a year
A stAggerINg 4.5million tonnes of fruit and vegetables are thrown away every year because it is the wrong shape or size, a study has revealed.
More than a third of farmed fruit and veg never makes it on to shop shelves because it does not meet standards expected by consumers and supermarkets, researchers say.
they suggest that eu regulation is partly to blame for focusing too much on the aesthetics of food, amid suggestions that Brexit is an opportunity to cut the ‘shocking’ waste.
Across the whole of europe, it is estimated that more than 50million tonnes of fresh produce is discarded annually in ‘ one of the great scourges of our time’, when 10 per cent of the world’s population is chronically hungry.
the study was conducted by researchers at the university of edinburgh, who examined how much food is discarded within the european economic Area (eeA) a year before it reaches the point of sale. stephen Porter, one of the authors, said regulations concentrated on the cosmetic side of food, rather than nutritional content. he added: ‘the use of aesthetics for classifying and accepting fresh food for sale and consumption is built into food quality standards and regulations of the european union. there is nothing to do with nutritional quality within those regulations. they assume they are fit to eat, therefore it’s not a food safety regulation, it’s very much on quality from a visual perspective.
‘encouraging people to be less picky about how fruit and vegetables look could go a long way to cutting waste, reducing the impact of production on the climate, and easing the supply chain.’
while some of the rejected food may be used for jams or animal feed, a lot is ploughed back into the fields, according to the findings published in the Journal of cleaner Production.
the university said the impact of growing the wasted food is equivalent to the carbon emissions of almost 400,000 cars.
the report describes the food distribution sector in europe and the uK is ‘oligopolistic’ in nature – meaning a small number of supermarket chains control a large market share, which lets them to impose additional ‘quality’ criteria.
Many supermarkets have branched out into selling misshapen fruit and veg but this only accounts for only a small proportion of what the stores display.
the researchers suggest that greater awareness among consumers, and a move towards shopping sustainably, could encourage the sale of more ‘ugly’ vegetables.
greater use of misshapen produce, perhaps in chopped or processed goods, or for sale at a discount to charities, would also drive down waste, they say.
Professor david reay, of the university’s school of geosciences, said: ‘ the scale of food that is wasted when it is perfectly safe to eat is shocking at a time when one tenth of the world’s population is perpetually underfed.’