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Great effort from the French to reduce food waste



Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ

Hove / Παρος
Apr 7, 2006
6,522
Hove / Παρος
French supermarket chain Intermarche has started selling "inglorious fruits and vegetables" - deformed but still perfectly edible. It'd be fantastic to see something like this in the UK supermarkets.

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Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
There was a ludicrous EU law banning the sale of deformed fruitnand vegetables. The odd looking produce was elligible to be processed, but generally the cost was off putting, so much was left to rot.

I think this law was repealed, but you rarely see deformities in the supermarkets.

Daft.
 


Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
30,521
Brilliant, this is a great idea, everybody wins.
 


Lawson

New member
Feb 25, 2012
294
I think this is a brilliant initiative by the French who seem to have a lot of great social schemes that we could emulate. Whenever i have gone abroad to supermarkets the fruit and veg never looks prim and proper like ours, for example the red peppers usually concave on one side and tend to be in large part blackish, however their taste is if anything superior and appearances mean nothing in terms of quality. I was a bit cautious at first but think nothing of it when cooking abroad now and it makes me wonder if we have grown a bit obsessive with the presentation of food rather than its nutrition.
 


Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,104
The democratic and free EU
There was a ludicrous EU law banning the sale of deformed fruitnand vegetables. The odd looking produce was elligible to be processed, but generally the cost was off putting, so much was left to rot.

I think this law was repealed, but you rarely see deformities in the supermarkets.

Daft.

Was this ever a real law, or was it just an old wives' tale put about by the anti-EU lobby?

Either way, as I have always understood it, the real reason supermarkets stock things like straight carrots and cucumbers is they stack better than curly ones. Plus the blemish-free ones are more likely to have a longer shelf life. It's generally the supermarket buyers who have caused this homogeneity in our produce, not the mythical Eurocrats.
 




Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
Was this ever a real law, or was it just an old wives' tale put about by the anti-EU lobby?

Either way, as I have always understood it, the real reason supermarkets stock things like straight carrots and cucumbers is they stack better than curly ones. Plus the blemish-free ones are more likely to have a longer shelf life. It's generally the supermarket buyers who have caused this homogeneity in our produce, not the mythical Eurocrats.

A bit of both.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7724347.stm

Plus supermarkets demand perfection.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ag...and-veg-to-return-to-supermarket-shelves.html


So plenty of guilty parties involved.
 


Seagull kimchi

New member
Oct 8, 2010
4,007
Korea and India
I buy my veggies from old women who peddle their home grown wares at the side of the road crossing for pennies. Pensions aren't too good here so free enterprise is encouraged, I love my cheap ugly organic old woman veggies.
 


Intermarche - Some of their smaller stores still shut for lunch 12:30 - 15:00.

Back on topic I think that this "straight cucumber, EU nonsense, etc" is an urban myth.
 




daveinprague

New member
Oct 1, 2009
12,572
Prague, Czech Republic
I think this is a brilliant initiative by the French who seem to have a lot of great social schemes that we could emulate. Whenever i have gone abroad to supermarkets the fruit and veg never looks prim and proper like ours, for example the red peppers usually concave on one side and tend to be in large part blackish, however their taste is if anything superior and appearances mean nothing in terms of quality. I was a bit cautious at first but think nothing of it when cooking abroad now and it makes me wonder if we have grown a bit obsessive with the presentation of food rather than its nutrition.



When I first moved here, I was looking through the expats forum, and one of the questions was, what do you miss most from home...
1st reply was 'Fruit and vegetables that dont look as if they have just fallen off the back of a lorry' ;-)

Having said that, when I lived in Holland, the fruit and veg looked fabulous, but was generally tasteless.
 


Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,104
The democratic and free EU
Having said that, when I lived in Holland, the fruit and veg looked fabulous, but was generally tasteless.

That would be because most of it is grown hydroponically in huge greenhouses, never seeing real sunlight or soil, and is kept under floodlight conditions all night to encourage faster growth. It's all about yield, not flavour...
 


daveinprague

New member
Oct 1, 2009
12,572
Prague, Czech Republic
That would be because most of it is grown hydroponically in huge greenhouses, never seeing real sunlight or soil, and is kept under floodlight conditions all night to encourage faster growth. It's all about yield, not flavour...

Yep...plus you rarely smell flowers in Holland.
 




Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,104
The democratic and free EU
Yep...plus you rarely smell flowers in Holland.

To be fair to them on that score, despite what most people think the flowers are not the main industry, but a necessary by-product of the bulb-exporting business, which is where the money is made. Does make them cheap though...
 


glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick
Nov 29, 2005
20,261
somewhere in Eastbourne
OK who is going to be the first one here in the UK to do this
 






But in all honesty if we were in a supermarket and presented with a mixture of fruit/vegs to pick from would we pick the nice ones or the "nasty" ones?
 




The Large One

Who's Next?
Jul 7, 2003
52,343
97.2FM
But in all honesty if we were in a supermarket and presented with a mixture of fruit/vegs to pick from would we pick the nice ones or the "nasty" ones?

In truth, it's not the shape that would bother me. It look to see if it was part rotten or off-colour. Our community garden has yielded some beauties when it comes to shapes of fruit and veg; all perfectly OK.

It more concerns me that carrots or onions or leeks or whatever seem to be sold in the supermarket at the same size every time. I'm not sure nature operates that way unassisted.
 






glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick
Nov 29, 2005
20,261
somewhere in Eastbourne
Infidelity Foods already do do this.

I think the story is more about a national supermarket chain doing it.

if you meant infinity foods yes they are/were great in North Road Brighton
their pizza's were amazing even cold ..................are they still there??
 


The Large One

Who's Next?
Jul 7, 2003
52,343
97.2FM
if you meant infinity foods yes they are/were great in North Road Brighton
their pizza's were amazing even cold ..................are they still there??

Yup. I go in there now and again for certain fruit and veg, and some spices you can't get elsewhere. Garlic in supermarkets, for instance, is crap.

I still call them Infidelity Foods after an old girlfriend of mine called them that. According to her, all the staff effectively had a closed-shop of everyone working there shagging everyone else. Some things just stay with you.
 



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