New research has found that more than a third of farmed fruit and vegetables never reach the supermarket because they are misshapen or the wrong size, making the produce undesirable for consumers. A University of Edinburgh study found more than 50 million tonnes is discarded in Europe each year.
A number of UK supermarket chains with a presence in Jersey, including Tesco, Waitrose and Morrisons, have recently started selling imperfect but still edible produce.
Tony O’Neill, the chief executive of SandpiperCI, which runs the Morrisons Daily outlets, said that there had been high demand in the UK for ‘wonky veg’ packages that were launched a few months ago.
He added, however, that so far his company had been unable to source any for sale in the Channel Islands.
‘Supply from our UK national brands is of course driven by the individual companies and there are a number of initiatives under way to start selling misshapen fruit and veg,’ he said.
‘Morrisons launched “Wonky Veg” a few months ago, but currently supply can’t meet demand, so it’s only in a limited number of their [UK] stores and Jersey can’t get hold of any at the moment. Inevitably it will come and go on various crops as seasonality dictates. It’s probably not realistic to think everything will be available all the time.’
He added: ‘We buy produce locally when in season and through our UK brands year round. On local purchases we are more flexible on size/shapes than our franchise partners would tend to be to maximise our use of local crops when they are available.’
Mr O’Neill said that he believed consumers were becoming more concerned about issues like unnecessary wastage and added that more could be done by supermarkets to address this.
‘I think the supermarkets inevitably reflect changing consumer needs and all of them are busy on various initiatives around waste, packaging and plastic reduction, which is very much in the news at the moment,’ he said.
‘It has to be remembered that waste is a bottom line cost to food retail companies, so our efforts to reduce it are driven by commercial imperatives as well as the environment.
‘Our management teams are very focused on minimising waste. We obviously reduce the price of products which are going out of shelf life and have agreements with various charitable organisations across the Island, to whom we donate any out of date food that is left, so they can use it to feed less advantaged folk.’
Peter Le Maistre, the president of the Jersey Farmers’ Union, said that for Jersey’s potato crops most of the waste produce was green or damaged, so could not be sold.
He added: ‘The only [saleable] waste is oversized and there have been initiatives to use these, for example for [making] vodka or as jacket potatoes.’
Charlie Gallichan, of Woodside Farms, which exports a range of vegetables and also supplies the Co-op and Waitrose and other stores in the Channel Islands, said that little produce was wasted in Jersey.
‘Firstly, misshapen or wonky veg which is no good for packaging is fed to the cows, so we don’t have much waste,’ he said.
‘Also, working with the wholesale industry, they are often happy to take oversized or weird-shaped produce for use in restaurants. Chefs are, for example, happy to cut up an onion which is double the normal
size.’
Waitrose and Tesco Alliance were contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of going to print.
