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Walk into a supermarket today and you'll likely find shelves chock-full of uniform fruits and veggies — perfectly round apples, unblemished peppers and immaculate red tomatoes.
But what happens to the less pristine goods? Despite being perfectly edible, they often get tossed into the trash.
An obsession with pretty produce contributes to our country's massive waste problem — 40 percent of all food produced in the US is thrown away. Retailers are responsible for discarding millions of pounds of fresh produce, often just because it doesn’t fit the specific size and color expectations we've grown accustomed to.
In an attempt to ease this "vegetable vanity," Jordan Figueiredo is using Instagram to show consumers just what they're missing. His @UglyFruitAndVeg account combats food waste by proving that the ugly ducklings of the fruit and veggie to world are tasty, too.
"Strawberries that look like a thumb, or carrots that look like they're dancing... [They] resonate with people. We shouldn't be giving away good produce," he recently told the Today Show.
Take a cue from him and think twice before you toss that blemished pear or misshapen peach. And check out some of our favorite edible uglies below.
Whoever said not to play with your food has clearly never seen these guys.
Photos courtesy of Instagram/@TheUglyFruitAndVeg
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