Tesco doesn’t reject fruits and vegetables that don’t look so good

It was on 24 January 2017 that Tesco started selling so-called Perfectly Imperfect fruits and vegetables: the retailer also purchases those fruits and vegetables from suppliers which formerly didn’t meet aesthetic specifications, but are of good quality. This year almost 850,000 packs of Perfectly Imperfect fruits and vegetables have been sold so far.

Perfectly Imperfect apples, potatoes, carrots, avocados and garlic are sold all the time, while cucumbers, pears, lime, California pepper and batatas are available seasonally. Tesco sells these non-standard fruits and vegetables at lower prices, offering a superb deal to customers. According to a recent study by the University of Edinburgh, 50 million tons of fruits and vegetables are grown in Europe every year, but nearly one third of this quantity ends up in the bin because the produce don’t look good.

Since the launch of the Perfectly Imperfect programme Tesco has sold 2.2 million kilograms of such produce. In Hungary leftover food is already saved in 150 Tesco stores and given to the Hungarian Food Bank Association. The food surplus is collected daily and donated to charity. Since the programme’s launch in September 2014 Tesco donated more than 15,221 tons of food to people in need – this is more than 38 million portions. Tesco’s goal is to prepare all Central European stores for donating surplus food to charity organisations by 2020. (x)