Traditionally, only the most perfect fruits and vegetables make it onto the shelves of supermarkets and grocery stores, while ugly ones – whether pockmarked, gashed, or squashed – are discarded as unsellable.

Now, some Chinese grocers want to see if discounts and advertising can sell consumers on the merits of these “ugly veggies.”

Leading the charge is Freshippo, the Alibaba-owned Chinese supermarket giant. In addition to lower prices — it sells blemished produce for 30% to 50% less than unmarked counterparts, on average — the chain has unveiled a series of mascots, from a “Smiling Tomato” with a horizontal gash to a forked carrot reimagined as a saucy showgirl.

The retailer says the push, which began in June, can reduce food waste by up to 4 tons per week.

In addition to Freshippo, supermarkets and wet markets in the eastern city of Nanjing have reportedly begun selling their own “ugly” vegetables, including Red Fuji apples with skin imperfections, oddly shaped peppers, and “wrinkled potatoes.”

Freshippo is not the first business to try to find a home for unwanted, “ugly” vegetables. Ma Hongwei has run a bento box delivery service in Shanghai that sources blemished vegetables directly from farmers since 2015.

“Many chefs may not want to buy ‘ugly’ vegetables because they are harder to handle,” Ma told Sixth Tone.

He noted that traditional sales channels usually screen agricultural products and sell them according to specifications, size, and appearance. “As a result, many irregularly shaped or blemished fruits and vegetables are rejected,” he said.

The sudden emphasis on discarded vegetables dovetails a renewed push in China to cut waste and shore up the country’s food security. In November, officials unveiled an action plan to reduce food loss and waste, with the goal of bringing grain and food loss rates below the international average by 2027.

Each year, 1.05 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally. Food waste contributes an estimated 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024.

A 2021 study found that about 27% — or 349 million tons — of Chinese food production went uneaten each year between 2014 and 2018, roughly equivalent to the total annual agricultural production of Brazil.

(Header image: Blemished tomatoes and irregularly shaped carrots on sale at a Freshippo supermarket in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, 2024. From @杭州日报 on Weibo)