However, researchers at Wageningen University & Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Ghent University find a hesitancy to share food which is otherwise perfect to eat, but blemished, misshapen, in a torn or dented package, or near its expiration date. This hesitation is consistent with the prospective donors’ own turning away from such suboptimal offerings for themselves and is explained as the prospective donors fearing recipients will think ill of them for considering the offerings to be suitable contributions.
The researchers go on to show how recipients actually respond to suboptimal food more positively than givers predict. After all, the food is free and fine to consume. If the recipient is a friend, there’s a bond of trust that the donor wouldn’t poison them. If the food is delivered through a food bank, the recipient is often hungry enough to relax expectations of perfect food presentation. In such circumstances, people are likely to take to heart and stomach John Heywood’s maxim from the year 1546 about gratitude and derived from checking a steed’s teeth to assess healthiness, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Based on results of their studies, the researchers also suggest two ways to address any hesitation that might remain about giving away suboptimal food: First, when circumstances allow, offer ready-to-eat meals prepared from the donated raw ingredients rather than the raw ingredients themselves. This hides any suboptimality.
Second, ease concerns about being thought ill of by announcing thankfulness. In the study, participants read about a food bank campaign, “Every donation matters. More appreciated than you think. Food bank recipients value all donations. That ‘not a quite perfect’ donation? It made someone’s day.”
A complementary intervention to reduce food waste is to persuade shoppers to purchase misshapen produce. Researchers at Dartmouth College, University of Pittsburgh, and The Ohio State University say the rejection has to do with social image and self-image: People tend to subconsciously assume that purchasing ugly produce in public and eating it each indicate a flawed aesthetic sensibility. A remedy is to buttress self-esteem. In the studies, willingness to purchase increased when signage by bins of misshapen items read “You are Fantastic! Pick Ugly Produce!” as compared with just “Pick Ugly Produce!”
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Waste Not with Misshapen Produce
Image at top of post based on photo by Ismael Paramo from Unsplash
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