A new range of ‘wonky’ fruit juices has been launched at Tesco in a further effort to tackle food waste.
The Waste Not range will include drinks made with out-of-spec apples, beetroot, strawberries and watermelon, among other produce, from two of the supermarket’s main suppliers, G’s and AMC.
Priced at £1.50 per 250ml bottle, the range will undercut most other offerings on the cold press juice market and be sold in around 350 of Tesco’s UK stores.
It is hoped that within the first 12 weeks of going on sale, around 3.5 tonnes of surplus fresh produce will be rescued thanks to the drinks.
Tesco’s prepared fruit buyer Jo Batty said: “These delicious juices are the latest way that we are helping tackle food waste by ensuring as much of the crop as possible gets used.
“The fruit and vegetables being used in the range fall outside the specifications for fresh produce and although they might not be flawless to look at, they still offer shoppers a great taste. This is the juicing way of giving these imperfect fruit and vegetables a second chance.”
The range will include four fruit combinations: orange, carrot and apple; orange, beetroot and apple; apple, watermelon, strawberry, cucumber and mint; and orange, apple, celery and spinach.
All of the fruit and vegetables in the drinks will be cold-pressed, which involves squeezing the juice in small batches instead of heat-pasteurising it. Putting the juice under high pressure in this way helps maintain the freshness of the product.
Mike Bullock of Waste Not said: “Around 50 per cent of celery is discarded in the UK before it even gets past the farm gate; beetroot deemed too large or small is rejected.
“It’s the same with oranges that are ‘ugly’ on the outside but still beautiful and juicy on the inside. What a waste. We couldn’t sit by and watch all this healthy produce be put in the bin.
“The solution was literally staring us in the face and Waste Not is our way of using what’s beautiful on the inside (where it matters) and sharing what tastes good, feels good and is doing good. It’s our way of helping the planet.”
The drinks, which will be sold in bottles made from 30 per cent recycled plastic, will sit in the fresh produce aisle.
