Friday, 5 February 2016

Waste Not : Asda Promotes Ugly Veg

In the aftermath of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's War on Waste program, I've not only been keeping an eye on my own habits but encouraging others to be less wasteful too. So it was a delight to read in The Times today that Asda has taken a step towards helping us to improve our habits and help farmers too.

A trial has been launched in 128 stores today, after the success of an earlier, smaller trial, of "wonky veg" boxes. The boxes, selling for £3.50, contain enough vegetables to feed a family for a week but rather than perfectly straight carrots and smooth spuds, you're more likely to find a much bigger range of sized vegetables, forked parsnips or curvy cucumbers, all still perfectly edible.

This is great news for farmers as they can still sell the produce to the supermarkets rather at a massively reduced rate for animal feed, or simply digging it back into the ground. Good news for us as consumers as we can pick up some budget friendly fruit and vegetables, eking out those pounds and pence a bit further and improving our diets in the process.

Other supermarkets are also starting to relax cosmetic standards for fruit and veg, but we all need to play our part. So next time you're out shopping, look to see if your supermarket is offering something similar, and if not, ask if they will.

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