Babaco Market: the Italian startup that delivers waste-prone fruit and vegetables.

A fruit and vegetable delivery service to combat food waste. An all-Italian service, launched a few months ago, in June, at the height of the health emergency, when delivery services naturally experienced a record increase. And, in this case, that's absolutely a good thing, given the 10 tons of produce delivered and saved from the garbage.

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BABACO MARKET

The basic idea is very simple: save fruit and vegetables that don't meet large-scale retail standards, which dramatically increase the amount of food waste. Aesthetically imperfect produce—that is, with flaws in the skin, shape, or smaller-than-average size—is rejected by traditional distribution channels, accounting for 40,5% of total food waste. This is entirely avoidable. 

Apples, pears, tomatoes, courgettes, and other fruit and vegetables, still tasty if not beautiful, can be saved thanks to the Babaco Market project. More than just a delivery system, it's a true education project for critical and responsible consumption, or at least more sustainable consumption.

Babaco Market aims to make available to end customers fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away because they're too large or too small, have small deformations or defects, have small spots on the skin, or are truly oddly shaped: Siamese cherries, lumpy eggplants, and oddly shaped potatoes. The process is simple: the Italian startup, born from the intuition of Myfoody founder Francesco Giberti, simply packages absolutely unique and extraordinary products in two-size boxes—Jumbo or Bonsai—both in size, appearance, and various special features, as well as in terms of the ethical and sustainable approach behind each box, a key concept in the entire project's development. 

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ANTI-WASTE DELIVERY OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTS

The very name of the start-up refers to this idea: babaco, in fact, is a star-shaped fruit, similar to a pepper, with a very particular sweet flavor. 

After registering on the startup's website, anyone can simply order a box of seasonal fruit and vegetables online, with refrigerated delivery delivered directly to their home. They can choose between a single package or a weekly or biweekly subscription, perfect for families. This will save an estimated 30 percent compared to buying in stores.

Babaco Market currently covers the Milan area and its surrounding area, where it has already enjoyed considerable success and enthusiastic reactions, both in terms of promotion and sales figures: in September alone, the products recovered and sold doubled compared to the average quantity of previous months, as Myfoody/Babaco Market reported in a press release. And perhaps the key to its success lies not only in its ethical and sustainable approach or in the cost savings, but also in the high added value of the products inside the boxes, which come from small producers and Slow Food Presidia throughout Italy, as well as farmers who are attentive to quality and cultivation standards, valuing biodiversity, local characteristics, and seasonality.

Even the packaging materials adhere to the sustainability philosophy, avoiding plastic or non-compostable/recyclable materials, using a cardboard box, and arranging the products loose in the box without additional packaging. Finally, any products not sold on the Babaco website will be donated to Recup, an organization that fights food waste and social exclusion by recovering food before it's thrown away and redistributing it to anyone who wants it. 

(Featured image from the Facebook page of Babaco Market)

FIGHTING FOOD WASTE:

• Hopenly: artificial intelligence combats food waste. It saves €300 a year.
• Foodbusters: The superheroes of food recovery arrive from Ancona.
• The video game against food waste is now online: to learn how to make non-wasteful choices.