French supermarket displays 'ugly produce' to reduce food waste
In order to reduce food waste, French supermarket chain Intermarch茅 promoted sale of 'ugly produce' for two days. The campaign included recipes with ugly produce, in an effort to show consumers that there isn't a difference in quality.
In order to reduce food waste, French supermarket chain Intermarch茅 promoted sale of 'ugly produce' for two days. The campaign included recipes with ugly produce, in an effort to show consumers that there isn't a difference in quality.
Customers rarely see imperfect fruit and vegetables鈥攖he bent cucumber, the two-legged carrot, even the heart-shaped potato鈥攂ecause they are tossed away long before they reach supermarket shelves. But this year, French supermarket chain,聽Intermarch茅, decided to feature these so-called ugly fruits and vegetables in their stores (in an effort to reduce food waste).
The campaign,聽Quoi ma gueule?聽(What鈥檚 wrong with my face?), was promoted over a two-day test period in March in Intermarch茅 stores鈥擣rance鈥檚 third largest supermarket chain鈥攊n the north-central town of聽Provins.
Each year, approximately聽one third聽of total food produced for human consumption, is wasted. The聽UN Environment Programme聽estimates the amount of food lost or wasted is equivalent to聽over half of the annual global production of cereals crops.
Intermarch茅 gave the ugly vegetables their own catwalk鈥攁 dedicated area with their own labeling in the supermarket. The broader advertising campaign,聽Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables,聽starred Clementine, the unfortunate mandarin, who informed consumers that her imperfections were聽鈥渁ctually quite cute.鈥�
Recognizing internal beauty was central to the campaign. Intermarch茅 used the ugly foods in recipes to show consumers that there is no difference in the quality of the product when compared to better looking produce.
Intermarch茅 priced the ugly vegetables at reduced prices鈥�30 percent lower鈥� compared to the standard produce to encourage sales.聽鈥淚t worked. We faced only one problem鈥� we sold out,鈥澛爀xplained one advertisement from Intermarch茅, created by聽Marcel Paris. The company saw聽1.2 times聽the average sale per store, and an increase in store traffic of聽24 percent.
Globally, there are similar supermarket initiatives working to educate consumers about ugly produce. In Britain,聽Waitrose聽has a聽weather-blemished聽fruit line; and聽Fruta Feia,聽is a cooperative in Portugal, selling ugly produce.