Pick those imperfect fruits, veggies, they taste the same

Dubai - Campaign to stop loss by encouraging sale of disfigured products.

Do you pick the good looking tomatoes and potatoes and discard the slightly disfigured ones at the supermarket? If you do, you are among the majority of customers who say no to imperfect fresh produce, contributing to huge food wastage.
A new national campaign launched to fight such food loss in the UAE will now encourage supermarkets to sell and customers to buy "ugly and imperfect" fruits and vegetables.
Titled "I'mperfect", the drive aims to bring all key stakeholders together within a collective framework to encourage the use of 'imperfect' fruits and veggies with the objective of reducing food loss at the source level, that is farms.
A popular concept in some of the Western countries, the UAE campaign is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and Blue Planet Green People, a UAE firm that promotes the sale of organic products through farmers' markets.
Launched to mark the World Food Day that falls on October 16, the campaign's slogan is "Frutts & Vegis-Look Different.Taste Same", denoting that the imperfection in looks may not mean ugly vegetables and fruits are of lesser quality or taste.
The organisers are in talks with leading supermarket chains to keep separate isles for selling aesthetically imperfect, but quality-wise perfect fresh produce at cheaper rates, Renu Ojha, the general manager of Blue Planet Green People, who conceptualised the campaign, said after a press conference held on Monday.
According to her, some 4,000 farms producing over 40 varieties of fruits and vegetables locally are likely to benefit from the drive.
She said the cosmetic importance of fresh food items result in rejection of 20 to 40 per cent of fruits and vegetables before they reach shops.
"Cucumbers, tomatoes and potatoes ... we have seen some of the supermarkets not accepting these and other produce if they are not packaged with uniform size and shape. They don't accept certain local vegetables in summer just because their colour may be faded." Some farmers, who were present at an exhibition organised at the launch of the campaign at Times Square Centre, Dubai, said they don't consider it a waste if they have to use rejected produce for compost.
Changing attitudes
Ojha said the aim of the campaign is to change that attitude. "When the farmers suffer a loss because of such rejections, they either use them for making compost in farms or eventually stop growing such products that do not meet the perceived aesthetic standards of supermarkets and their consumers. Our aim is to encourage them to produce fruits and vegetables of all sizes, shapes and colours and don't let them go to waste."
The campaign will train food industry professionals to get out of the fear that people will reject the ugly picks. It will reach out to the community through school children and women's clubs as well.
Ugly, yet consumable
Students and teachers of schools like the The Millennium and GEMS-Metropole said they are hosting salad days and farmers' markets to teach children and parents the need for stopping food wastage by discarding the ugly, yet consumable fruits and veggies.
"We make salads with both good and bad looking fruits and vegetables and let them taste and see that the taste," said Jessica Mathew, an eighth grade student of The Millennium School.
The agenda for the campaign also includes the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the FAO and the opening of a food bazaar in support of owners of SMEs in food sector.
This complements the World Food Day's theme for 2015 -'Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty.'
According to the FAO, 1.3b tonnes of food amounting to $750b is lost in production, distribution and consumption globally, every year. "This is equivalent to one third of total food produced and is enough to feed 2billion people," said FAO Representative in the UAE Mehdi Drissi.
Though official figures for overall food wastage in the UAE is not available, a study by Massar Solutions, a government-owned transport company that offers vehicle rental fleet and supply chain solutions said in May that 3.27 million tonnes of food worth more than Dh13 billion produced and imported in the UAE is wasted every year. -sajila@khaleejtimes.com

Fact box
> Total farms in the UAE: 30,000
> Farms producing fruits and vegetables: 4,000
> Organic farms certified by Esma: 60
> Varieties of fruits and veggies produced: 40
> Rejection of ugly and imperfect fruits and veggies: 20 to 40%

• UAE