LIFE
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<strong>LIFE</strong> ENVIRONMENT |<br />
<strong>LIFE</strong> and the circular economy<br />
The beauty of ‘ugly fruit’<br />
The FLAW4<strong>LIFE</strong> project (<strong>LIFE</strong>14 ENV/<br />
PT/000817) aims to change food consumption<br />
habits and create an alternative<br />
market for ‘ugly’ (or less than perfectlooking)<br />
fruit and vegetables. It aims to<br />
bring about the equal marketing of all<br />
quality fruit and vegetables regardless of<br />
their size, colour and shape. The project<br />
will achieve this goal by replicating nationally<br />
an innovative methodology (called<br />
Fruta Feia or ‘Ugly Fruit’), which has already<br />
been tested in Lisbon and Porto.<br />
“The main challenge in replicating FrutaFeia<br />
Co-Op’s methodology across<br />
Portugal is to ensure that new delivery<br />
points are as financially self-sustainable<br />
as the ones we have in Lisbon,” explains<br />
project manager, Isabel Soares.<br />
“This means to collect a minimum number<br />
of associated consumers eager to<br />
consume local and ugly fruit; to establish<br />
a work and trust relationship with<br />
local farmers in order to build a reliable<br />
network of ugly fruit suppliers; to find a<br />
local association or site with the conditions<br />
to host the delivery point; and to<br />
gather a team of volunteers to help the<br />
local coordinators unload the transportation<br />
van and set the boxes in the delivery<br />
points,” she says.<br />
The project manager explains that there<br />
must be at least 250 associated consumers<br />
per delivery point, taking fruit<br />
from 35 farmers within a 70 km radius.<br />
The cost to the consumer must be no<br />
more than €1.50 for a small box of ‘ugly<br />
fruit’ and €3 for a large box.<br />
Fruta Feia currently saves 5.6 tonnes/<br />
week of food waste at its five delivery<br />
points (three in Lisbon, two in Porto).<br />
The aim of FLAW4<strong>LIFE</strong> is to increase<br />
the number of delivery points to 11 and<br />
the amount of food waste saved to 12<br />
tonnes/week. According to Ms Soares,<br />
“the most important factor in creating<br />
a market for ‘ugly fruit’ is consumer<br />
awareness. Only by increasing it will it<br />
be possible to gather a group of consumers<br />
who do not judge the quality<br />
of produce based on aesthetics and a<br />
movement capable of changing consumption<br />
patterns.”<br />
The project aims to spread its approach<br />
across borders through collaborations<br />
and the publication of a best practice<br />
handbook. Ms Soares notes that the<br />
market for imperfect fruit and vegetables<br />
is increasing across Europe, but<br />
cautions that replication of Fruta Feia’s<br />
model is only possible in similar conditions:<br />
“urban areas with an enough<br />
‘ugly fruit’ consumer demand supplied<br />
by a rural region no more than 70 km<br />
away.”<br />
She also notes that there are some barriers<br />
to market growth. “These are related<br />
to quality requirements regarding<br />
appearance, whether imposed by European<br />
or national legislation or by internal<br />
company rules, which stipulate the<br />
size and shape of fruit and vegetables<br />
to be sold and lead to many unnecessary<br />
discards.” The EU’s 2012 ‘Resolution<br />
on how to avoid food wastage<br />
- strategies for a more efficient food<br />
chain in the EU’ (2011/2175(INI)) - illustrates<br />
that policymakers and food retailers<br />
are increasingly looking at ways<br />
to overcome these barriers and ensure<br />
that food quality requirements are not<br />
based on appearance.<br />
The WASP Tool includes information on the most<br />
efficient waste prevention actions that have been<br />
used throughout the EU and their applicability in<br />
specific local contexts. The <strong>LIFE</strong> project piloted<br />
use of the tool in two municipalities in Greece and<br />
one in Cyprus, where demonstration waste prevention<br />
actions took place. These included workshops,<br />
training courses and leaflets on food waste<br />
prevention, including recipes on using leftovers<br />
in Mediterranean cuisine. To assess the impact<br />
of these measures, volunteers filled out questionnaires<br />
and food waste diaries. “The intervention<br />
resulted in 9-12% food waste prevention in<br />
the participating municipalities,” explains project<br />
manager, Katia Lasaridi.<br />
“Local authorities in the wider Attica Region have<br />
expressed their interest in using the WASP-Tool in<br />
order to optimise the development of their local<br />
waste action plans,” she adds, noting that, “a reference<br />
to the WASP Tool project has already been<br />
made in the national waste prevention strategy of<br />
Greece.”<br />
Priority sector four: Biomass<br />
and bio-based products<br />
In a circular economy, a cascading use of renewable<br />
resources, with several reuse and recycling<br />
cycles, should be encouraged where appropriate.<br />
It is important to only use biomass for energy<br />
when it does not conflict with other land uses, in<br />
particular food production. The Commission will<br />
promote efficient use of bio-based resources<br />
through a series of measures including guidance<br />
and dissemination of best practices on the cascading<br />
use of biomass and support for innovation<br />
in the bio-economy.<br />
priority sectors<br />
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