"Les Moches" - ugly fruit and vegetables

[lagatta]

Anyone who has ever gardened, or even frequented a market, knows that not all carrots are identical in size or shape and that vegetables and fruits have sometimes surprising forms. While I'm sure many of these "substandard" produce items wind up in commercial soups, stews and other dishes, alas some may simply be discarded. A French supermarket chain, Intermarché, ran a campaign about "Les Moches":

lareclame.fr/101419-legumes-moches-intermarche

www.organicauthority.com/3-food-waste-facts-about-frances-ugly-produce-campaign/

positivenews.org.uk/2014/environment/agriculture/16073/french-supermarket-sells-ugly-fruit-vegetables/

[Deleted]

Yes, Intermarché has quite a good advertising campaign about its non standard items.

videos-mdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/fruits-legumes-moches-intermarche.png

[Deleted]

Well, having grown up on a farm, I vividly recall some "freaks of nature" that were I suppose mutations of some kind, and as children we were highly entertained and amused by some of the vegetables (mostly potatoes) that my father brought home to show us. Despite their weird shapes, they were perfectly edible.
I don't know that I can go along with classifying them as ugly.
But, my father knew he couldn't sell them because people want the "perfectly" shaped conventional potato so, we simply ate them ourselves.

[Deleted]

Although I approve of a great many of the EU regulations which have improved our lives and protected us from all sorts of crap, it's sometimes a shame that the calibre of most fruits and vegetables has become so strict. While odd shaped items can still be sold in the country where they are produced, it is forbidden to export them to other EU countries. There are certainly some EU countries specialised in things like the soup or jam industry that could take a lot of these items in to transform them. Frankly, I don't know if the rules are responsible for much (or any) additional wastage, but if so, they should reconsider.

[lagatta]

That is utterly ridiculous, as of course these vegetables and fruits can be used in soups, stews, jams, pies and everything else where you don't need some kind of "perfectly formed" ideal. Casimira, I think "moche" is kind of a joke. And we know these often have "erotic" or other comical forms.

[Deleted]

Well, I'm sure that part of the original reason was to ensure that countries didn't keep the "good" stuff and sell the other stuff to the other countries. We shouldn't forget that the original European Economic Community began long before there was so much excess production of foodstuffs.