Here are some common ways that perfectly good food can end up going to waste:
COSMETIC
Grocery stores want food that looks beautiful unblemished on outside, which means that they don’t want ugly food, like scarred fruits vegetables, almonds with minor insect damage on skin apples blemished by rough winter. They have to wait for a juicer or processor to show interest or else they might go to waste.
OFF-SPEC
Certain types of food can fall through cracks of our food system if it doesn’t meet strict specifications set by buyer. Many of these variances are caused by way food is harvested or packaged. These products will typically not have a local buyer need to be shipped far away in order for farmer or producer to recoup value or be forced to sell product for much less.
SURPLUS/EXCESS INVENTORY
Due to unpredictable nature of how bountiful a harvest can be or how over-forecasted production can be in any given year, a farmer or producer might find themselves with way more than they had planned for. The market can also be flooded with a particular category of trendy food, or a buyer can back out of a large order, leaving hard-working farmers producers with perfectly good food that suddenly has no future.
UNDERVALUED
Perfectly good food goes to waste every day simply because there isn’t enough demfor it. For example, our broccoli leaves are a healthy delicious part of broccoli plant that used to get left in field because stores only wanted to buy broccoli crowns–even though stalk leaves are over 2/3 of plant!
PACKAGING CHANGE
Brands, like people, sometimes need a makeover. However, when a brchanges packaging on one of their products, an unintended consequence is that old packaging is often stuck in food purgatory. It’s what’s on inside that counts, right? That’s why we recover these foods so that they are enjoyed by our customers – no matter how they look on outside.
SHORT-CODED
Traditional retail stores won’t stock items with expiration dates less than a few months away. To help close loop on this needless source of food waste, we source products that are “short-coded” so they can find a good home instead of being stranded in a warehouse. We’re able to offer a more flexible solution than grocery stores our customers get a great deal on their favorite products!