Fruits and vegetables are also victims of discrimination. Too small, too big, twisted, weird… Unfortunate foods find themselves abandoned by traditional distribution channels, these tyrants of standards, causing a loss for their producers as well as for not-so-conspicuous consumers. Because a carrot or an apple, as ugly as they are, keep all their taste. Especially when they are organic.
Benefits for all parts of the chain
It is from this observation thatOut of Standards was born. This Parisian start-up, created in April 2020, wanted to collect from producers poorly calibrated fruits and vegetables for mass distribution, and to create baskets of them. “Our ambition is to fight against the food waste that occurs upstream of the value chains”, explains Sven Ripoche, co-founder of Hors Normes.
“The advantages are multiple: it limits pollution, since producing fruit and vegetables means emitting greenhouse gases. It guarantees an income for farmers, a good part of their production would not otherwise be sold. Finally, it is more economical for consumers, about 40% cheaper than in an organic store. »
Hors Normes has just set up in Lyon, with its simple concept: the customer orders his basket on
an Internet site (from 11.50 euros for a 2 kg basket to 28 euros for an 8 kg family basket), which he then picks up at a collection point. “Flaws are only aesthetic, we don’t compromise on quality!”, specifies Sven Ripoche. We have a network of about thirty partner farmers, who notify us each week when they have harvested, for example, 500 kg of butternuts that are too small or too large, and we will dig into this waste to compose our baskets. »
A fair company in all its details
Like any self-respecting anti-waste start-up, every link in the chain is thought out fairly. In Paris, Hors Normes has its baskets prepared by an integration association. “As we wanted to have the same ecosystem around us in Lyon, we entered into a partnership with Nouvelle Attitude, a company for the integration of people who were far from the world of work. The batches are then delivered by Urby, a specialist in low-emission delivery.
At the end of the month, the Non-Standards basket will be filled with other groceries, or processed products that are also victims of too much food waste. If the content guarantees seasonal vegetables, some of them can destabilize the regulars of the potato: Hors Normes therefore offers recipes on its site to cook them simply. Like these beautiful pumpkin ravioli, miso and sage butter, which make the not-pretty-pretty appearance of its ingredients look ridiculous before cooking.