A hot, dry growing season is turning UK cauliflowers yellow, curling cucumbers into spirals, riddling pak choi with pest holes, and stunting potatoes into knobbly clusters, according to farmers and the surplus-produce company Oddbox. Retailers, facing shortages, are reportedly loosening their usual cosmetic standards on size, shape and colour rather than risk empty shelves, with Waitrose and others already running dedicated 'wonky veg' lines. Growers say the produce tastes identical; the crops are only failing an appearance test, not a nutrition one.
Farmers like potato grower Lucy Munns and Worcestershire's John Harper describe discarding usable produce because supermarkets and chip shops wouldn't normally accept the misshapen results, calling the waste 'criminal.' The British Retail Consortium says supermarkets are importing more food from abroad to fill gaps, with cherries potentially next affected, as climate change makes seasons like this one increasingly the norm rather than the exception.
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