 Refreshed ... supermarkets are being encouraged to offer discounted inferior fruit and vegetables for cash-strapped shoppers / Vanessa Hunter |
- Inferior food for cash-strapped
- Health experts say it will fight disease
- Vegetable body believes not worth the effort
SUPERMARKETS should sell inferior fruit and vegetables at discounts to fight disease and obesity, health experts believe.
VicHealth has called for the introduction of a grading system for fresh fruit and vegetables to ensure they stay on the menu for cash-strapped shoppers.
Chief executive Todd Harper said a healthy diet was being priced out of the reach of growing numbers of people.
"When we go through periods of water shortages and food prices go up, it tends to be high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt foods that become cheaper relative to fruits and vegetables," Mr Harper said.
He said offering imperfect produce at cheaper prices would spur greater fruit and vegetable consumption, and help fight obesity and diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Mr Harper said mountains of fresh food were wasted every year because it was deemed not good enough for supermarket shelves.
Vegetable grower and former Ausveg chairman Mike Badcock said the plan was good news for the health of Australians and for struggling farmers.
"It allows people to buy a quality product if they`ve got the money, but if they haven`t got the money it gives them the opportunity to keep vegetables on the plate," Mr Badcock said.
He said farmers had about a third of their crops on average rejected by supermarkets.
"It makes you cry as a farmer because you know they are still perfectly OK but they get rejected," Mr Badcock said.
But Vegetable Growers Association of Victoria president Luis Gazzola said paltry returns would not make the expense and effort of getting lower quality produce to supermarkets worthwhile.
Mr Gazzola said it made more financial sense to churn second-grade vegetables back into the ground to help the next crop.
Fruit Growers Victoria general manager John Wilson said lower-priced produce could hit growers hard.
"Some people who buy the premium-quality fruit could go the other way and buy the lower-cost products," Mr Wilson said.
He said he doubted people would buy blemished fruit because they had been conditioned to expect only the best.
Coles and Safeway said they encouraged Australians to eat more fruit and vegetables but believed their customers were discerning about quality.
The plan is part of a VicHealth submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into grocery prices.
The submission also calls for prices of staple food items such as bread, milk, eggs, meat and seasonal fruits and vegetables to be included with the week`s specials in supermarkets.
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