Ugly fruit is a big hit in French grocery stores

Would you eat a ‘hideous’ orange? What about a ‘disfigured’ eggplant?

French consumers are grabbing up misshapen produce thanks to a new supermarket ad campaign that glorifies the unusual.

Intermarché, the third largest supermarket in France, launched a national promotion  that purports to bring an end to food waste by highlighting fruits and vegetables that are usually deemed unfit for consumption and tossed by farmers.

World food waste is a gigantic problem. In the U.S., the USDA estimates that Americans throw out over 133 billion pounds of food every year- that’s almost a third of the available food supply.

The fresh produce items, which taste just like their prettier counterparts, have been given their own aisle in stores and sold at a 30 percent discount. The project has been a success and Intermarché has reported that their weird looking fruits are flying off the shelves.

“Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” features seven unique posters shot by photographer Patrice de Villiers, featuring disfigured fruits and vegetables in their twisted glory.

“The most vital element was ensuring the "strange but lovable" theme shone through I spent time observing our uglies trying to find the precise angle which showed both their "ugliness" and their loveliness, finding their unique character,” de Villiers told Fast Company.

She believes that character allows people to look beyond the outside and focus on the healthy fruit flesh within.

Not only have the fruit and vegetables been a hit, but the Daily Mail reports that overall traffic to Intermarché stores increased by 24 percent since the campaign’s launch.