Study: More than a third of farmed fruit and veggies are thrown away before reaching supermarkets

Aurel Dragan 20/08/2018 | 11:04

In Europe, more than a third of farmed fruit and vegetables are thrown away before hitting the shops because they are the wrong size or shape. According to research conducted by the University of Edinburgh, more than 50 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables grown across Europe were discarded each year.

The study, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, examined food loss and waste within the European Economic Area and examined how much food was discarded before it reached the market.

The interesting fact is that researchers attributed losses to strict government regulations, as well as to supermarkets’ high standards and the customers’ expectations of how the produce should look. The study also found that farmers grew more food than they had to in order to allow for a proportion that would not be deemed fit for sale.

“Encouraging people to be less picky about how their fruit and vegetables look could go a long way to cutting waste, reducing the impact of food production on the climate, and easing the food supply chain,” said Stephen Porter of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, cited by BBC.

In order to stop the waste it was suggested that there should be more awareness among consumers and a move toward shopping sustainability that could encourage the sale of more “ugly” vegetables. Recently, UK supermarkets have been making more space for increasing amounts of less-than-perfect products.

Fortunately, in Romania this situation is not turning into a problem since the vast majority of customers are used to buy fruits and veggies that are not perfect in size or shape and we can find these kind of products even in supermarkets, not just in farmers markets.