'Ugly' fruit and veg market set up to highlight food waste

Too Good To Go, the application that fights against food waste, is inviting Belgians to adopt new habits in order to redusce daily waste of fruit and vegetables at home.

As part of this campaign, the organisers behind the app held a fruit and vegetable market with a difference on Place Flagey in Brussels on Wednesday. The market only sold ‘ugly’ produce, fruit and veg with a surprising or unusual appearance, to remind everyone not to eat with their eyes, but rather with their taste buds.

In Belgium, fruit and vegetables are the most wasted food category with nearly 104m kilos thrown away each year. Nearly one in three fruits or vegetables purchased is thrown away without having been consumed, most often because they rot.

In addition to the economic aspect, food waste also has environmental consequences. Indeed, when fruit or vegetables are thrown away, we also waste all the work, resources and energy that will have gone into the production process which ends in our kitchen.

According to a survey conducted by Too Good To Go, seven out of ten Belgians consider the appearance of fruits and vegetables in stores to be important. Only one in six Belgians say they regularly buy fruits and vegetables with an unusual appearance when they are just as good as the most conventional looking produce.