Jan 27, 2023
Rescued Organic program aims to reduce food waste, support farmers
Specialty retailer Sprouts Farmers Market has launched its Rescued Organic program in its 130 California stores.
The program reduces food waste by bringing to market imperfect organic produce that would typically be discarded because of imperfections that do not affect quality. Produce may be misshapen, under- or over-sized or slightly off color.
“Five billion meals worth of edible food are left on farms each year, and the Sprouts Rescued Organics program is designed to help address that problem,” Nick Konat, Sprouts president and COO, said in a news release. “This program allows our customers to partner with us to reduce food waste by taking home delicious, high quality organic fruits and vegetables that may look a little different but are perfectly good, keeping so-called ‘imperfect’ produce out of the landfills.”
The Rescued Organics program will also support Sprouts’ farmer partners by increasing profit through the selling of imperfect produce.
“We are happy to be involved with Sprouts’ Rescued Organics program because too much perfectly good produce goes to waste, solely due to appearance, and contributes to our growing environmental and landfill problems,” said Mindy VanVleck, director of sales at Peri & Sons Farms. “Sprouts’ Rescued Organics program also allows Peri & Sons Farms to more efficiently fill our produce trucks, which helps the success of our local farm and lessen our overall carbon footprint for delivery of goods.”
The Rescued Organics program includes 12 different varieties of local produce such as potatoes, onions, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, pears, carrots, kiwi and bell peppers.
