What’s the Attraction Behind Ugly Produce?

He says the Misfits have been popular, and the grocer is evaluating and learning more from it before it considers further rolling out the concept in more stores. “We hope [it] is successful and look to potentially expanding it to other stores,” Blom says.

Blom also explains that strict USDA food safety standards still apply.

“We don’t have any concerns about safety,” Blom says. “It has the same nutritional value as its more standard cousins, so the quality and safety are the same.”

Some people favor the standard-shaped products, as the ugly fruit can have scars, a carrot could split into two conjoined carrots, tomatoes may be slightly discolored, or two may be fused together. Others find beauty or even a profit in the cosmetic abnormalities.

The fused tomatoes, which are genetically mutated and known as “whoppers,” are especially popular with food service customers, says Jim Darroch, director of marketing at Backyard Farms, a Madison, Maine, hydroponic tomato grower. That’s because they are larger and easier to process into sandwiches or sauces.

Darroch says 45 percent of the company’s sales are to wholesalers, and 3 to 5 percent of its production has to be destroyed due to safety issues. It’s not selling ugly fruit yet, but Darroch adds Backyard may at some time consider doing so. “People’s tastes are evolving and changing and we are keeping up with it,” he adds.

Community supported agriculture also is making moves with ugly fruit. Ugly CSA is Pittsburgh’s first CSA for funky fruit. It uses the moniker “Delicious is not skin deep.” And The Ugly Apple Café food cart, Madison, Wis., uses local farmers’ overstock produce to minimize waste.

Good Price Leads to Shortages

When Walmart began selling ugly produce in mid-2016 under the “I’m Perfect” label, it found a ready market for low-priced bagged apples in about 300 of its Florida stores, but like even smaller grocers, found it difficult to get a steady supply of the ugly fruits and vegetables, according to CNBC.

While there may be plenty of imperfect apples one week, it may take weeks or months until there’s enough available from the next harvest.

Dana Gunders, a senior scientist in the food and agriculture program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CNBC at the time, “Selling cosmetically imperfect produce is relatively rare right now. Whole Foods has a pilot program, and there was a California chain, Raley’s, that tried it for a little while but discontinued it.” Raley’s has said it was reorganizing and the person spearheading the program moved on, according to Food Tank. There’s also been concern by grocers that consumers in general will shift to the cheaper produce, but Raley’s found that wasn’t the case.

Ugly produce did get a boost in early 2016 when TV’s “Shark Tank” venture capitalist Robert Herjavec gave $100,000 for a 10 percent share in the ugly produce delivery company Hungry Harvest, Columbia, Md. It sells ugly fruit under the brand “Produce with Purpose,” and soon after the infusion of money it expanded quickly.

In August 2016 the company opened its first Produce in a SNAP site at Baltimore’s Franklin Square elementary school, which is in the middle of a food desert. Hungry Harvest CEO and co-founder Evan Lutz wrote the following in an April 2017 article for CNBC: “We sell 7- to 12-pound bags to residents that don’t otherwise have access to affordable produce, for just $7. We also accept SNAP and EBT, hence ‘SNAP’ in the program’s name.”

He notes the program has since taken off, with over 3,000 bags sold and $30,000 in revenue in the seven months since the program got started. Hungry Harvest plans to expand to two new sites per month.