Every year, thousands of tons of food from retail chains end up in containers and compost. Two of them therefore started selling unaesthetic vegetables and fruits. And they succeed.
Interest in saving ugly vegetables from stores is huge in the Czech Republic. A full box costs only twenty crowns.
| Photo: Profimedia
It is enough for the fruits or roots of fruits and vegetables to have only a small flaw in their beauty, and they end up in the landfill. Recently, however, these unattractive tomatoes, eggplants or apples have had a chance for a new life. The chain offers crates in which people can find fruits that are not quite pleasing to the eye, but otherwise do not compete with their prettier colleagues on the shelves.
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“Our principle is that we put fruit and vegetables in the boxes that we wouldn’t buy ourselves,” said Lucie Hubalová, head of the Penny Market branch in Hradec Králové, while sorting one such box. This chain has become the second player on the market to offer this option.
Food, energy, notebooks. It makes everything more expensive. People are wondering where to get free food
“We thought about what to do with fruits and vegetables that, although tasty and without defects, do not meet aesthetic requirements. That’s why six months ago we launched a pilot project of crates with a mix of otherwise unsalable goods,” informed the chain’s spokesperson Tomáš Kubík.
One such box, containing two kilos of mix, will cost twenty crowns. And the interest is huge. “People often ask us about it, and we prepare around twenty crates this way every day. We check the crates at regular two-hour intervals,” added Hubalová.
Food rescue
For the chain itself, it is a surprise how much fruit and vegetables shoppers saved from going to the container during the six months of the pilot project. “During this time alone, people saved nine tons of food with this purchase. We saved another fifty tons with our Penny to the Zoo project, where we have been supplying fruit and vegetables that are otherwise unsalable to twenty-six Czech zoos for a year now,” said Kubík.
The Lidl chain was a pioneer in the field of boxes with an ugly assortment last fall. His data now show that they can save up to 3.8 thousand tons of fruit and vegetables this way in a year.
Price gouging? He is not on vacation. We got the briefcase from the bazaar, explains the mother of four children
Recently, according to Lidl, people are increasingly interested in this offer. “Three-kilo boxes full of various fruits and vegetables for a uniform price of 25 crowns are replenished throughout the day,” Lidl spokesman Tomáš Myler informed. However, the chain does not only offer secondary vegetables and fruits, but also flowers.
Anna Strejcová, one of the founders of the Save Food initiative, praises the efforts of retail chains to prevent waste. “It is estimated that stores throw away about five percent of food every year. Therefore, we welcome such activities that lead to the reduction of waste. And it is precisely reducing surpluses directly at the stores that makes sense,” she added.
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