The Canadian food industry throws out as much as 20 per cent of produce that doesn’t look nice, but there is a growing movement to reclaim the food and sell it, reports The Globe and Mail newspaper. It’s estimated that food waste in Canada costs $27 billion a year.
The RedHat Co-operative in the western province of Alberta used to ship ugly fruit and vegetables to the dump or sell it to Hutterite colonies at cost. Hundreds of kilos of perfectly good produce went into landfill, rotted and emitted harmful greenhouse gases.
Now the co-op has rebranded the produce as “The Misfits” and started selling it at discounted prices. A company in Montreal is trying the same thing.
The trend began in Europe a couple of years ago.
So, why are people in industrialized countries so picky about their food? One Canadian professor told the Globe they eat so much uniform, processed food that they perhaps have developed unrealistic standards for fresh produce.
First world problems.
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