“It’s only ugly because that’s how we have been conditioned to think,” says Hong Kong chef Peggy Chan, who runs Grassroots Initiative, a consultancy that provides advice on sustainability in the food industry. “It tastes the same and is still nutritious.”

Companies have sprang up around the world to draw attention to the value of imperfect produce. Misfits Market in the US city of Philadelphia sells subscription boxes of ugly fruit and vegetables, which the company buys directly from farms and sells for up to 50 per cent less than their retail prices. Singapore’s Ugly Food also focuses on reducing food wastage in the supply chain.

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Recognising “ugly produce” is knowing about real food, says Kadoorie senior agriculture officer Yip Tsz-lam.

“Nature is full of diversity. Humans vary in appearance just like farm produce. It’s a mistake to expect vegetables and fruit to look as though they were manufactured from a template in a factory,” says Yip, adding that consumers should not just consider a shiny appearance when buying fruit and vegetables.

“A cucumber might have a few blemishes or [be] slightly curly because an insect might have crawled over it or it got a mild scraping during the fruiting stage. These only affect the appearance and not the texture or taste of the produce.”

Kadoorie Farm says people expect carrots, a winter crop in Hong Kong, to have a long, pointed edible root. However, stunted and split carrots commonly form when they must force their way through compacted soil. In fact, many baby carrots are just whittled down deformed carrots. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 25 to 30 per cent of carrots do not make it to supermarket shelves because of physical or aesthetic defects.

“Ugly fruits and vegetables that do not meet the ‘standards’ in shape, colour and size are likely screened out throughout the supply chain on farms, during processing, distribution, storage, in retail stores and food service operations, even though they are perfectly delicious and nutritious,” says Kadoorie’s agriculture officer, Queenie Shum. “Customers’ wider acceptance of produce in non-standard forms can help reduce food waste down the supply chain.”

In the United States, about 60 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables, worth a staggering US$160 billion, is discarded each year. In Singapore, 763,000 tonnes was thrown away in 2018. Chan, a leader in Hong Kong’s plant-based food movement, says consumers must understand the enormous pressure farmers face to meet consumers’ “archaic demands for uniformity”.

“Anything that isn’t perfect can’t be sold, hence the reduction in their yields. When farmers are unable to meet their yields due to consumers not being able to appreciate imperfect fruits and vegetables, the farmer suffers.”

Chan says consumers’ appetite for uniform food planted the seed for genetically engineered crops and monocropping, the agricultural practise of growing a single crop year after year on the same land.

“Farmers were told by giant agriculture corporations that these methods would increase their yields, but they failed to give them information on what health and environmental damage this could cause,” she says.

“Our consumption power can help improve the livelihoods of those who grow our food. Use it.”

Changing public perceptions is vital, Yip says. “Excessive use of pesticides, packaging, synthetic colourings and preservatives has become the norm today to ‘guarantee’ compliance with the strict cosmetic standards of grocery stores.

“Accept some flaws on the peel of citrus fruits [oranges, mandarins, lemons] because the peel isn’t normally consumed.”

Growers add unnecessary pesticides and chemicals to food to achieve a “perfect” appearance, Yip says.

“Take the lotus root,” says Yip, referring to the patterned stem of the lotus plant that’s found in many of the city’s wet markets. “It has a natural muddy-yellow skin, but some produce sellers bleach the roots to make them look ‘cleaner’.”

There are good reasons why food waste needs to be taken seriously. According to the FAO, one-third of the world’s food is wasted, a staggering figure considering more than 820 million people go hungry each day.

And according to global conservation body WWF, food production is the biggest user of natural resources and emitter of greenhouse gases, occupying 34 per cent of land and using 69 per cent of fresh water. It is also the main cause of deforestation and other habitat loss.

The survey of 11,000 people was carried out in Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK and the US. The conservation group says all these countries face threats to food security from damage to nature and contribute significantly to this damage through high-impact food production, consumption or waste.

“If food is produced more sustainably, distributed fairly and consumed more responsibly, we can feed everyone without destroying more forests, rivers and oceans. We need to increase people’s awareness of where food comes from, and change our behaviours to ensure the proper functioning of our food system,” said Joao Campari, WWF Food Practice Leader, at the time of the report’s release.

Consider the resources required – 13 litres of water is required to grow just one tomato, while 50 litres is needed to produce a single orange, another FAO report states.

Chan points out that the problem of food waste doesn’t end at the supermarket exit. “Households waste about 300kg of food a year, with 65 per cent being avoidable,” she says.

She is also critical of the restaurant industry of which she has been a part. Chan says people in the industry like to use the word sustainability for their own benefit without practising or understanding what it actually means.

“For restaurants, using all parts of the produce will help alleviate this, but many are not trained to do this,” she says. “Making soup and stock from food scraps also helps, and freezing bruised bananas so they can be used in a morning smoothie is a way to add a natural sweetener. It also stops it going to landfill. That fruit or vegetable is still good for you.”

Market tips from Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

1. Enjoy the variety show

Many natural factors contribute to the variations in appearance, flavour and texture of produce. While scratched, crooked or distorted produce might look different to what’s on offer in a supermarket it’s just as tasty and nutritious. Mishapen produce may reflect how strong plants respond and recover from a small scratch or bug.

2. Keep it fresh

The shelf life of most fruit is relatively short, so beware produce that appears to have remained fresh for an unreasonably long time. Be aware of packaging waste, preservatives and energy consumption, such as a long-distance travel involved getting food from the field to the table. Produce such as bananas, papayas and strawberries, which ripen quickly, should be consumed close to where they are produced and when they are in season.

3. Talk to food producers

A farmers’ market is the best place to talk directly with farmers and for consumers to learn more about how and why some produce might look different from food sold in supermarkets. These markets also offer a chance to bypass some of the strict aesthetic standards implemented by supermarkets.