FUTURE REPORT
04, 2022-01-25
Food
Nature comes in many shapes and sizes. Historically, we have struggled to accept this and growers played into our needs for perfect vegetables. They started growing their roundest, brighests, and most uniform vegetables in place of the tastiest or healthiest.
It is a well known fact that fruits and veggies are sorted based on appearance before they end up in our supermarkets. Food and environmentally conscious trends have given us the ‘misfits’, products that normally would not be sold because of their appearance. Our conscious society has reflected on our historic preference for perfect products, the results of which can be seen in supermarkets already.
This is not without criticism of course, as with any upcoming trend. You could argue bringing these misfits into supermarkets is just a trick for them to get a huge discount on buying their produce. But does that matter? After all, once this trend is normalised we can see it translated into the way we genetically modify our vegetables. As growers realise that society has evolved into preferring taste over looks, they start to adapt to their new market.
We are in a transitional phase where support for misfits is there, but the internal market has not yet caught up. Of course companies make their profits, but that’s simply the rewards they get in exchange for the risk of early adoption.
The Next Step
As consumers have started to embrace the misfit fruit and veggies in their home kitchen, the next step is going to restaurants. Gone is the michelin-star image of three tiny perfectly sized and shaped carrots on a plate. The restaurant scene, especially the higher end of the market, will start to adopt these veggies as a way to show their thoughts on society.
Image Credits: De Librije Photo Manipulation added Carrot by Team The Lady in Blu
Opportunities lie in packaging and advertising too.
Food packages always have the perfect fruit and veggies displayed on it. Buy a pack of orange juice and it will have the shiniest and roundest oranges on full display. Do you want to join this trend in a subtle and simple way? Make a new product lineup with packaging or advertising that displays the misfits. How easy could it be to differentiate yourself from your competitors?
Image Credits: Photo Manipulation Team The Lady in Blu
Image Credits: Photo Manipulation Team The Lady in Blu
Image Credits: Photo Manipulation Team The Lady in Blu