New Sprouts Farmers Market Initiative Aims To Tackle Food Waste

Sprouts Farmers Market is launching its Rescued Organics program at its 130 California locations. The program is designed to reduce food waste and supports local farmers by bringing to market imperfect organic produce that would otherwise be discarded because of imperfections that do not affect quality.

Rescued Organic produce may be misshapen, under or over-sized or slightly off-color, but has the same taste, nutrients, and quality as other Sprouts produce. The program also makes organic produce more accessible because it is offered at a reduced price.

“Five billion meals worth of edible food are left on farms each year, and the Sprouts Rescued Organics program is designed to help address that problem,” said Nick Konat, president and chief operating officer of Sprouts. “This program allows our customers to partner with us to reduce food waste by taking home delicious, high quality organic fruits and vegetables that may look a little different but are perfectly good, keeping so-called ‘imperfect’ produce out of the landfills.”

In addition to reducing food waste, the Rescued Organics program will support Sprouts’ farmer partners. Farmers’ inability to sell imperfect produce makes farming less profitable and more difficult to operate. ​

“We are happy to be involved with Sprouts’ Rescued Organics program because too much perfectly good produce goes to waste, solely due to appearance, and contributes to our growing environmental and landfill problems,” said Mindy VanVleck, director of sales at Peri & Sons Farms. “Sprouts’ Rescued Organics program also allows Peri & Sons Farms to more efficiently fill our produce trucks which helps the success of our local farm and lessen our overall carbon footprint for delivery of goods.”

The Rescued Organics program is launching with 12 different varieties of local produce such as: potatoes, onions, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, pears, carrots, kiwi and bell peppers.