With realism, eventually taking centre stage, the definition of real beauty has changed drastically! People across the world are celebrating imperfection and taking pride in just being their original self and it seems this new trend is also taking over the food domain. Slowly and steadily, we are learning to appreciate imperfection, even in food, without any pretention and prejudice. And taking this idea forward in the food vertical, is a movement called ‘Wonky, Ugly or Mishappen Food’, which has become very much a part of ‘realism’ where people are coming out in open to deflate the myth that has been associated with the shapes and sizes of food items like fruit and vegetables.

In addition, very recently, the campaign called #LoveUglyFood marked its notable presence with Michelin Star Jamie Oliver who lent his support to the movement by reclaiming the wonky veggies. The campaign was aimed at encouraging people to find beauty in imperfection. People were asked to share posts with the wonky fruits they bought and promote them on social media with hashtag #LoveUglyFood. Another hashtag, #Savetheuglies curated pictures of ugly looking fruits, which are usually thrown away and are not purchased solely on their appearance. These pictures were shared by people from across the world.

Surprisingly, apart from the raw, organic or locally sourced vegetable or fruits, this emerging European trend has gained popularity as a ‘Healthy Food trend’ and has also encouraged supermarketer’s from across the globe to carry the trend ahead.

In vogue since 2014, this particular trend has got the third largest supermarket of France, Intermarche to create a range of ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables’ by replacing the term ‘Ugly’ with ‘Inglorious’. Yet another UK retailer, ASDA has been promoting ugly fruits as ‘Wonky Fruits & Vegetable’, and has been packing them in a Wonky Veg Box – a box, which only contains ugly vegetables.

In the later part of 2015, however, the largest supermarket retailer in Austrailia, Woolworths, released its ‘Odd Bunch’ campaign, which was similar to ASDA’s ‘Ugly good’ strategy. At the same time, NSW food retailer, Harris Farms launched its ‘imperfect picks’ range. Very recently, Canada’s largest supermarket, Loblaws, announced the rollout of its ‘naturally imperfect’ range to appreciate imperfection.