perfectly imperfect strawberries

Tesco’s Perfectly Imperfect range is being rolled out across Poland

Tesco has launched its Perfectly Imperfect range in Poland, as it extends its battle against food waste.

The retailer is trialling the range, which launched in the UK in March last year, in 14 pilot stores across Poland.

Tesco urged Polish shoppers to take heed of the Fusions 2016 report of the European Union, which showed 9.1 million tonnes of food each year went straight to waste during production in the member states.

It said disposing of vegetables and fruits with shape, weight or size that do not meet the regular standards was one of the key reasons for this.

Polish shoppers will be offered imperfect apples, beetroot, carrots and potatoes as part of the scheme.

“We’d like to encourage customers to buy non-ideal fruits and vegetables. Their size or shape may not be perfect, but they are equally tasty and meet our high quality standards”, said a Tesco spokesman.

“As customers, we got used to repeatability of foods we buy. But it definitely makes sense to choose the less regular fruits and vegetables, as we always get the same high quality. At the same time, we help to protect natural resources and tackle the food waste issue.”

Waldemar Murawa, managing director at Nowalijka, a supplier of Perfectly Imperfect beetroot and carrots, added: “It is an important initiative also for suppliers, as they can now offer even more products to retailers.”

Tesco Polska has been donating food surplus from its stores since 2013, but Tesco said it hoped the new scheme would bring attention to the fact that food was wasted not only in shoppers’ homes and stores, but also during the production process.

Launched with potatoes and parsnips in March last year in the UK, Perfectly Imperfect has since been extended to include apples, strawberries, pears and other fruit and veg.