Life can be hard for farmers in Australia, especially those trying to sell their products to consumers.

In a rare glimpse of what happens before food reaches our home, one farmer has spoken out against major supermarkets’ rules on produce.

An Aussie farmer 'Mama Viv' recently took to social media to express her frustration at these standards, which she said put an unfair strain on local farmers and result in perfectly edible produce being rejected.

One farmer has expressed her frustration over the unreasonable standards of supermarkets. Image source: rawpixel.com on Freepik.

Mama Viv's daughter, Jasmine, shared a video on social media capturing her mum’s plight.

'This is just a scenario. We can supply 2000 boxes [of raspberries] into a supermarket, the supermarket does their own checks... The supermarket will find one insect... The tiniest insect on the planet. They will find one in one punnet and they will then reject the whole lot,' Mama Viv said.

'We [then] have to chemical spray even more so that one bug doesn't appear in a punnet [again]. If that happens... how is that better for the environment or you?'

No supermarket was explicitly named in the video. However, the fact remains that Woolworths and Coles are the two main supermarket giants in Australia.

But the trouble caused by rejected produce doesn’t stop there.

When it comes to produce that didn’t make the cut, farmers can't just throw it all away—the produce will then be returned to the agents who act as the bridge between farmers and supermarkets. These agents would then need to find other buyers.

The issue, however, is that this process takes time, and the produce becomes less fresh and loses value.

'Because of one insect... Guess who suffers? We do, because the price falls per box,' Mama Viv lamented.

While this may raise some eyebrows, Mama Viv pointed out that finding insects on products like fruit could actually be a good sign.

'If a bug is living on a vegetable or a fruit it means it's actually healthy,' Mama Viv said.

Many agreed with her, with one saying: 'We are 100 per cent with you.'

While another said: 'I'd prefer bugs than more chemicals!'

Unfortunately, bugs aren’t the only reason why supermarkets reject crops.

According to Farmers Pick co-founder Josh Ball, 'Five to fifty per cent of any crop can get rejected because of the way it looks, either because of its size—it's too big or too small—or it has a blemish on it. The standards are primarily set on aesthetics.'

Furthermore, it was reported by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), that food waste costs about $36.6 billion each year. In addition, the land used to grow wasted food is bigger than the entire state of Victoria.

This has prompted various efforts to cut down on food waste. The Inner West Council in Sydney, for example, has requested locals to place their food scraps into green food organic and garden organic bins.

Moreover, Farmers Pick and other similar businesses have started to purchase rejected produce and sell them directly to consumers. So far, over 1.5 million kilograms of food have been saved by Farmers Pick.

Key Takeaways

• A farmer known as 'Mama Viv' has criticised supermarkets for their standards which can lead to the rejection of decent produce.
  
• She revealed how she and other farmers are forced to use extra chemicals to prevent the appearance of even the smallest insect on their crops, which can result in produce rejection.
  
• If produce is rejected, it's returned to the agent to sell to another buyer, resulting in a decrease in freshness and value.
  
• Farmers Pick’s Josh Ball also said the focus on aesthetics in supermarket standards for produce contributes to significant food waste in Australia, with the DCEEW reporting it costs the economy about $36.6 billion per year.
  

What do you think about the standards of supermarkets, dear members? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[Leenie]

When people used to grow their own fruit and vegetables, a bug on a leaf would just be brushed off! The supermarkets are too fussy about produce being 'perfect'! I'd rather a bug, than insecticides on my food!

We still brush them off what’s a few chewed leaves ,bugs know what’s good .

 

[bluetang]

I have found the same fruit and especially tomatoes have no taste they are nothing like we used to buy. I’m sure they experiment to get a bigger crop and it changes the taste.

They have developed the tomatoes and strawberries for the longer life on the shelf. Taken out the sugar content so now there is no flavour but they look good and last longer. Ukk

 

[gordon1940]

Living in a fruit and vegetable farming region I can confirm that supermarkets have size and blemish rules when accepting products from producers. It is heartbreaking to see the amount of fruit and vegetables which go to waste because they do not fit some moron in an ivory tower’s view on what is acceptable to their customers. They fruit and vegetables we see left to be ploughed back into the land would feed a city and yet it goes to waste. I would ask people throughout Australia to stand up to big businesses who bully primary producers into wasting perfectly good food and screwing them down on purchase price. (A note on another article I just read, when supermarkets put their prices up on fresh food, farmers do not receive any more money. There is a contract in place and if a supermarket pays $1 or $2 per kilo for say limes, you can bet your life you will still be paying $5.99 for a pre packed bag of 5.) If you live in the city, please stand up for those who provide fresh food for the country by going on line and expressing your concerns about the amount of food wasted due to rejection by big business and unnecessary cost increases which are blamed on the supply chain which simply isn’t the case and start demanding that they relax their ridiculous rules on the size of the products they will and won’t accept.

Surely there would be Market room to increase the use of "Odd" shaped vegetables in it diced Tinned and Frozen sales??