Supermarket chain Lidl has launched a campaign encouraging shoppers to “give vegetables a chance” by buying less-than-perfectly shaped ones for a discounted price ahead of Christmas.
“They look different but taste the same,” says Lidl in an advert featuring the carrots, celeriac and beetroot on offer. “Don’t waste food and support Polish farmers before Christmas.”
Supermarkets in Poland, as elsewhere, usually select produce on the basis of not only quality and freshness but also appearance, knowing that many shoppers have a preference for products based on size, colour or shape.
But recent years have seen campaigns encouraging retailers and consumers to accept less aesthetically pleasing produce in order to avoid food waste.
Lidl – which has over 700 outlets in Poland – last year joined such efforts after it bought over a thousand tonnes of beetroots produced on a farm in Poland that were set to be thrown away because their curved shape did not meet retail standards.
“It turned out that customers not only received them well, but also fell in love with the imperfect vegetables,” said the firm this week when launching its new campaign.
Lidl notes that Christmas – when families gather and eat many homemade dishes – is a time when there is more food waste than usual.
As well as selling misshapen vegetables, the retailer is also trying to improve the efficiency of its food deliveries to avoid waste, as well as offering more products for sale that are close to their expiry date. Unsold food is also transferred to food banks and other charities.
The firm also argues that its efforts will help Polish farmers, who “suffer losses when their vegetables do not meet the ‘standards’ accepted on the market”.
Last year, another big supermarket chain in Poland, Carrefour, also began selling fruit and vegetables that would previously have been rejected due to their appearance. A number of small specialist retailers, such as Wojna Warzyw and Lokalny Rolnik, also sell such “imperfect” produce.
Main image credit: Lidl Polska
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
