A study in Britain says farmers and sellers in Europe discard 50 million tonnes of food every year on the grounds that it does not look good.

The University of Edinburgh study says one-third of all crops produced go to waste because supermarkets and consumers want vegetables and fruit that look perfect. The produce may be the wrong size or ugly-looking; in other words, it does not match what consumers expect. Unsold or rejected food is left in the field or used as animal feed.

The study looked at how much of the crop in the European Economic Area is lost, and how much is thrown away, each year.

The researchers blamed government policy, supermarkets' high standards and consumers' expectations of produce. The study also found that because of this, farmers grow more than they are meant to, since they assume they will not be able to sell part of the crop.

To curb the waste, the researchers suggested raising awareness among consumers. They also called for a movement to encourage supermarkets to sell fruit and vegetables that do not look perfect.

Stephen Porter of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh said: "If people's attitudes to how vegetables or fruit should look can be changed, this waste can be greatly reduced. It would also make it at least somewhat easier to deal with the climate impact of food production and the huge demand for food."

Recently, though, this thinking has begun to change somewhat in supermarkets in the United States.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.