Feature: Ugly Fruit proves a hit in Portugal

Isabel Soares, 32, was outraged when she discovered while studying in Barcelona that around 30 percent of fruit produced in Portugal and in Europe went to waste, just because it didn't look pretty enough.

Soares, an environmental engineer, decided to do something about it. She entered a competition held by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2013 and used the platform Crowdfuding to collect around 20,000 euros (about 22,400 U.S. dollars).

This enabled Soares to start up the cooperative Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit), which distributes fruit and vegetables that are neglected by supermarkets and would have gone to waste, like tomatoes are smaller or spinach which has stained leaves.

"Beautiful people eat ugly fruit," their motto goes.

Soares and her team of volunteers collect the produce from local farmers in Portugal and then bring it back to the old palace of Lisbon's Ateneo Comercial, where they lay out the fruit and vegetables in wooden crates for people to collect for a reasonable price.

"Every time I go to the countryside and pay the farmers a fair price for their work, I feel fulfilled. This project makes sense to me," Soares, who worked as a renewable energy consultant in Barcelona, tells Xinhua.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year, which is enough to feed 925 million people who go hungry.

Soares says the waste problem has to do with supermarket standards and the European Union's (EU) detailed regulations which dictated the size, shape and appearance for fruit and vegetables.

Since it was set up, Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit) has managed to rescue around 100 tons of fruit.

Soares has managed to convince more and more Portuguese consumers to give ugly fruit a second chance. When the cooperative started up in 2014, Soares had 100 consumers and 10 farmers. Today she has 800 consumers, 44 farmers, and almost 3,000 people on the waiting list.

"When I set this up, I thought it was going to be easier to find farmers, but they thought I was crazy. They didn't understand why we would be interested in buying fruit and vegetables that they were used to throwing away."

The project is expanding, with the cooperative recently setting up a third delivery post in the seaside town of Parede, around 22 km from Lisbon.

Soares aims to raise more money to take Fruta Feia to other districts around the country, her next objective being Porto in North Portugal, the country's second biggest city.

Soares said Ugly Fruit has made a difference in raising awareness and that the concept is becoming popular internationally, with French retailer Intermarche in France launching a successful "inglorious fruits and vegetables campaign." They too are convincing people that the "failed apple" and the "ugly carrot" don't deserve to be disregarded.

The EU relaxed its rules back in 2008 due to widespread criticism. Last year it declared 2014 to be the Year Against Food Waste and laid out a set of proposals for member states to develop national food waste prevention strategies, aiming to reduce food waste by at least 30 percent by 2025. Endit