Reducing food waste isn’t just good for the produce industry’s bottom line, it also helps combat food insecurity and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. 

In years past, many growers left unsold or less-than-perfect produce in the fields, and distributors often sent waste to the landfill. 

Now, with operating costs on the rise across the produce industry and inflation sending the average family’s grocery bills soaring, companies are using innovative tactics to find a home for their unsold produce — whether it’s a local food bank, a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, soil-enriching compost or a nearby juice processor. Here’s a look at how produce industry players are reducing food waste while helping those in need and bringing in additional revenue.

Feeding the hungry

Six years ago, San Francisco-based distributor Stanley Produce Co. began donating less-than-optimal produce to the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market for distribution through its Food Recovery Program. Launched in 2016, the program has since diverted more than 6.5 million pounds of fresh produce to food banks and other community nonprofits thanks to regular donations from 15 merchant partners. 

“The city of San Francisco was really pushing for us to defer stuff away from the garbage,” said Stanley Corriea Jr., owner and president of Stanley Produce Co. “It’s a good thing to give away product that you're not able to sell, rather than throwing it away.”

To facilitate donations, Stanley Produce Co. sets aside vegetables and fruit — typically items that can’t be sold at retail due to age, weather impacts or other factors — in an assigned area of the company’s loading dock. Each morning, Corriea texts a contact at the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market to let them know what is available that day.

“We just point to it and they pick it up, so it’s no labor on our part,” Corriea said. “It’s a win-win situation.” 

As a small distribution firm that doesn’t sell produce on a consignment basis, Stanley Produce Co. typically doesn’t generate a lot of waste; however, the company has managed to achieve a 30% reduction through the food recovery program. Employees also have been known to pack boxes of unsold herbs and drop them off at a local ranch to help feed the farmer’s goats. 

“We’ll do anything we can to try to divert produce from our garbage,” Corriea said. “We’ve gotten to the point now where our garbage can is the size of one for a normal residence, and half the time we don’t even fill it in a week.” 

Regenerating unsold produce

At Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee, Wash., composting has long been a part of the company’s operations. 

In 2005, company owner and fourth-generation farmer Kyle Mathison opened the Stemilt Organic Recycling Center, a multi-acre compost farm near the family’s orchards. This enables the farm to regenerate unsold apples, along with leaves and branches, into natural fertilizer for its apple, pear and cherry orchards.

Rather than composting whatever green waste is available, Mathison selects materials that will best meet the nutritional needs of his trees. While his original motivation for composting was to grow better-tasting fruit through natural means, the facility serves a dual purpose in preventing unsold apples from going into the landfill or languishing on the trees.

Stemlit also prevents food waste at the retail and consumer levels by applying Apeel, a plant-based coating made from fruit and vegetable peels, to its organic apples. Replacing conventional spray-on wax, which is often considered undesirable for organic fruit, the coating extends a fruit’s shelf life by helping it retain moisture. 

The goal, explains Stemlit Growers Marketing Director Brianna Shales, is to keep organic apples fresh in consumers’ refrigerators for a longer period of time, so they don’t end up in the trash bin. 

“I think that's powerful for the retailer as well,” she said. “They don't want to have to deal with shrinkage and things like that with a premium item like organics.”

Read related: Fruit and vegetable businesses share strategies for chasing lofty sustainability goals

Making ‘ugly produce’ beautiful

Lakeside Organic Gardens, an organic produce grower-shipper based in Watsonville, Calif., has found a home for produce that can’t be sold at retail by partnering with Imperfect Foods, a purveyor of “ugly produce” subscription boxes. 

Through the program, fruits and vegetables that might normally be tilled back into the land are delivered to customers’ doors. This helps Lakeside Organic Gardens earn additional revenue while providing customers with organic produce at a reduced cost. 

Along with Lakeside Organic, Imperfect Foods’ network of farms includes Homegrown Organic Farm in Porterville, Calif. and Fruit World in Reedley, Calif. Each grower or wholesale partner must agree not to sell Imperfect Foods any produce that would otherwise go to community food banks. 

Lakeside Organic Gardens’ partnership with Imperfect Foods began in 2016 when representatives from the companies met at a produce show and discovered matching synergies in prioritizing sustainability and reducing food waste.

Dick Peixoto, owner of Lakeside Organic, says the collaboration is beneficial in 
enabling his company to sell items that are small, oddly shaped or discolored, while generating less waste. In addition, Lakeside works with juice processors and other companies that target reducing food waste.

“When possible,” Peixoto added, “we also work with local food banks to help them supply excess produce to people in need.”

Helping consumers do their part

The Quebec Produce Marketing Association is doing its part to reduce food waste by helping consumers do theirs. Each month, the organization produces an e-magazine called Défi Zéro Gaspi (Zero-Waste Challenge), devoted to helping shoppers make use of every bit of the produce they purchase. 

“This project is relevant because as we know, 45% of the food waste is related to fruits and veggies,” said QPMA nutritionist Amaryllis Ricard-Lafond. “Many causes can explain that they are the most wasted food category, like the lack of knowledge of how to cook each and every edible part [of the produce] or how to make it last longer once purchased.”

Launched in January 2022 in partnership with the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and supported financially by Quebec growers, the publication offers recipes and waste-reduction tips. Each issue focuses on a single commodity, such as squash, beets or radishes.

“Every magazine is very specific and complete for each and every fruit and vegetable,” Ricard-Lafond said. “Our two zero-waste experts, Florence-Léa Siry and Guillaume Cantin, are also great cooks that provide easy recipes to make the best out of what people would normally throw away. For instance, they made onion powder out of onion skin, chips out of root vegetables peels, strawberry vinegar out of strawberry stalks and an apple infusion out of apple cores.”

QPMA posts links for free downloads on its I Love Fruits and Veggies Movement website and social media platforms. The association also engages with key influencers in Quebec to help promote the publication.

“This has been a really successful campaign,” said QPMA CEO Sophie Perreault, “and it’s really fun.”