Isabel, through the Fruta Feia project, warns to the problem of disposal of fruits and vegetables whose appearance does not fit in that required by the major distribution channels. This type of waste does not result from issues related to food safety or quality. The result of such aesthetic requirements results in a waste of about 30% of what is produced by farmers in Europe. “This waste, in addition to being an ethical problem, also has environmental consequences as it involves the unnecessary expenditure of the resources used in its production, such as water, soil, energy and the labor force".

Fruta Feia aims to “combat market inefficiency by creating an alternative market for ugly fruit and vegetables, changing consumption patterns. This market intends to generate value for farmers and consumers and to reduce both food waste and the unnecessary expenditure of the resources used in its production ”.

Curious? Let’s enter the Fruta Feia market!

Fruta Feia appears in 2013…

… by the head of its founder, Isabel Soares who, “when living in Barcelona, ​​watched some documentaries about food waste and realized that there was a serious waste of fruit and vegetables due to aesthetic reasons”.

After becoming aware of this problem, Isabel started some research, but the real click that led her to create the project occurred when “an uncle, a farmer, told her that in fact he was going to throw away about 40% of his pears that year, of good quality, simply because they do not obey certain aesthetic standards”.

She attended to the Ideas of Portuguese Origin contest from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s, which allowed her to gather the necessary means to implement the project, after winning the second prize, together with a crowdfunding campaign.

Thus was born Fruta Feia.

The Ugly Fruit…

… “is a consumer colective", which oppose to food waste resulting from disposal with aesthetic causes, buying fruits and vegetables that do not meet the aesthetic standards necessary for sale, “directly to farmers in the region and selling baskets directly to consumers at delivery points (delegations) across the country ”.

The main goals of Fruta Feia…

… are framed in three pillars of sustainability, such as the environmental, which consists on “reducing food waste, valuing the resources used in its production (water, energy and agricultural land) and contributing to the reduction of gas emissions with Greenhouse effect, resulting from the decomposition of uneaten food ”. There is an attribution of an economic value to fruits and vegetables previously rejected, generating extra profitability for farmers and, at the same time, allowing consumers to have access to seasonal and regional products at a price equivalent to half the price of supermarkets. Social  scope is characterized by the“ empowerment of consumers in solving an environmental problem, by valuing the work of farmers, creating jobs and changing the consumption paradigm that quality is measured by appearance ”.

Every week, Fruta Feia…

… buys “small, large or misshapen vegetables and fruits” directly from the local producers, who are unable to dispose of them. With the products purchased, “baskets of two sizes are made to sell to consumers associated with the colective”. The small basket weighs between 3 to 4 kg, has 7 varieties and costs € 3.50; the large basket is twice the weight, 8 varieties and costs 7 €.

In addition to the purchase and sale of vegetables and fruits, Fruta Feia develops a series of activities that are part of a program called Fruta Feia Miúda with the aim of “sensitizing students from the 1st to the 3rd degree to the problem of fruit and vegetables  waste due to aesthetic reasons ”. Through these activities, “we intend to involve the school community in solving the problem of food waste due to appearance and changing consumption patterns, deconstructing the idea that ugly fruit is garbage".

11 is the number of employees of the Fruta Feia team,…

… 6 women and 5 men. The training area is very diverse, ranging from environmental engineering to sociology. It is a multidisciplinary team, which has different “characteristics and valences”, which they use to achieve the objective of oppose to food waste “and changing the consumption paradigm”.

They all share the same kind of tasks, such as visiting farmers twice a week and organizing and selling the baskets to consumers. In addition to these tasks, each one has a specific activity that includes “accounting, environmental education, management of the farmers’ network, communication and dissemination, among others”.

The horizontal organizational structure is the one that characterizes Fruta Feia, so everything that involves a decision process involves all elements of the team.

“All employees have a permanent work contract and a fair salary, promoting job stability, well-being and quality of life".

Fruta Feia is a sustainable project, at the food level because…

… was the 1st project in the world that took into account the problem of food waste upstream of the agro-food chain, which occurs only due to the appearance of the food. At the same time, it develops an innovative consumption model, which places responsibility on consumers. The model is based “on the purchase of small, large or misshapen products from local farmers and on the organization of baskets for their associated consumers, who pick them up on a fixed day of the week and delivery point”. This model “contributes to reducing the ecological footprint of production systems along the entire value chain".

“It is based on a Lean Chain, not generating waste anywhere in the chain and minimizing all economic and environmental costs".

It is a model that promotes…

… ”proximity consumption (less than 70 km from producers to delegations), reducing transport costs; seasonal consumption, reducing production costs; collection from farmers and delivery to consumers on the same day, avoiding storage costs; the purchase by consumers made at a fixed point, avoiding door-to-door delivery costs; the reuse of wooden boxes and cloth bags to pack and transport the products and the donation of the remaining baskets ”.

 By promoting more sustainable forms of consumption, changes in the behaviour of consumers and volunteers are being introduced. “They are people who have effectively changed their consumption patterns in favour of a fairer choice for the environment and farmers and to the detriment of an aesthetic assessment of quality".

For Fruta Feia, the main challenge and the most difficult of all…

… “is to change people’s mentality and record that change in the future. We believe that it must be done through actions and, as such, we have created a model that puts the solution to food waste in the hands of consumers, making them capable of reversing a problematic consumption paradigm. We want to continue contributing to this change, not only by involving more people in the project (consumers, farmers, volunteers), but also through education, disseminating the Fruta Feia message to young students and showing them a successful case of a collective solution to a global problem ”.

At nacional level…

… ”there are several initiatives that fight food waste downstream of the agri-food chain, with appearance not being the reason for disposal, such as donations of excesses from restaurants and supermarkets, to charities (such as Re -food, Zero Desperdício or Banco Alimentar), projects that try to deconstruct the preferential consumption dates (Day After) or awareness campaigns to promote a better use of food at home.”

Fruta Feia was the first entity, worldwide, to raise the issue of the disposal of fruit and vegetables for mere aesthetic reasons, “being the most qualified to take not only the question but also the solution to other parts of the country”.

The European Commission…

… points to a waste of between 30 and 50% in the fruit and vegetable production process. Many of these wasted foods are used by the juice industry, but farmers consider this option “economically unfeasible since the price paid for ugly products is overwhelmingly less than the cost of production”.

Worldwide…

… there are similar projects that emerged inspired by Fruta Feia, such as Imperfect Produce, in the United States of America, and Fruta Imperfeita, in Brazil. These two projects, unlike Fruta Feia, opted for a business model for profit.

Fruta Feia suggests that food sustainability can be globally reached, but…

… “it is necessary, before increasing production, to consume and make better use of the food that is already produced and thus reduce the food waste that currently exists. On the other hand, it is necessary to consume products that represent a lower environmental impact: seasonal (that represent a lower energy expenditure for production) and local products (that represent a lower energy expenditure and less emissions of greenhouse gases in transportation).”

Curiosity!

Fruta Feia started in November 2013, with 1 delivery point in Lisbon, 10 farmers, 100 consumers, avoiding the waste of 400 kg of fruit and vegetables per week. Today, with 11 delivery points in the regions of Lisbon and the North of the
country, 213 farmers, more than 5500 consumers, weekly avoid the waste of 15 tons of food. Since it started until now (September 2019) Fruta Feia has prevented 1,754 tons of quality fruit and vegetables from being wasted.

Get to know more about Fruta Feia on:

Website: frutafeia.pt                                  

Facebook: FrutaFeia

Instragram: @fruta_feia

Read the The New York Times article about Fruta Feia:

www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/world/europe/tempting-europe-with-ugly-fruit.html?searchResultPosition=1