{"id":881108,"date":"2026-10-13T18:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T18:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881108\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T18:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T18:22:22","slug":"americans-are-stressed-about-grocery-prices-so-why-do-they-toss-or-overlook-so-much-misfit-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881108\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans are stressed about grocery prices, so why do they toss or overlook so much \u2018misfit\u2019 food?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a paradox that drives the shopping decisions of many Americans: Almost three-quarters<\/a> say they\u2019re feeling stressed out about skyrocketing grocery bills<\/a>. But they keep discarding large quantities of food that\u2019s safe to eat, from crooked carrots to surplus yogurt to \u201cbest before\u201d items pulled from shelves early.<\/p>\n

Overall, the U.S. government estimates that 30% to 40% of all food<\/a> \u2013 from consumers, retailers and producers \u2013 is thrown out. That\u2019s not just a massive missed opportunity for people experiencing food insecurity<\/a>, but it\u2019s also a significant contribution to global warming. According to the United Nations, 8%-10% of carbon emissions<\/a> globally result from food waste. <\/p>\n

In recent years, however, a market to rescue discarded groceries and repurpose food scraps and by-products has grown dramatically. This ranges from marketing \u201cugly\u201d produce<\/a> to appeal to more consumers to upcycling food by-products<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I study how consumers evaluate product value<\/a> and quality, and my research suggests that American shoppers are much less fixated on prices or environmental impact. Instead, they care about quality. Even when perfectly good \u201cmisfit\u201d produce is deeply discounted, for example, many shoppers assume<\/a> that the low price reflects poor quality and either walk away or reach for a fruit or vegetable they think looks better. <\/p>\n

What does this mean for reducing food waste and shedding these purchasing biases? My research has found that smarter and more effective labeling can make a big difference. A discount or promise of lower carbon emissions isn\u2019t enough by itself \u2013 people have to believe the food is good first. <\/p>\n

Making \u2018ugly\u2019 food attractive<\/p>\n

A whole retail sector is now dedicated to marketing misfit food. \u201cUgly produce\u201d delivery companies like Hungry Harvest<\/a> and Misfits Market<\/a> are rescuing and reselling food to shoppers who want to save and reduce their carbon footprint.
\nMisfits Market alone has rescued more than 265 million pounds (about 120 million kilos) of food since 2018 and sells it at an average discount of 35%. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Companies that sell \u2018misfit\u2019 produce have seen a surge of consumer interest in recent years.
\n Jintao Zhang, CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n

Another example is Too Good To Go<\/a>, an app that sells \u201csurprise\u201d bags of surplus food at about one-third of the retail price. It estimates that it has saved more than 26 million meals, including through partnerships with more than 530 Whole Foods stores<\/a>. And the app Flashfood<\/a> encourages grocers to list meat, dairy and produce nearing their best-before date at around half price and directs shoppers, including those on public food assistance, to those deals. <\/p>\n

Consumers appear to be responding. Too Good To Go users in the U.S. saved 8.1 million meals in the first seven months of 2025, a 67% jump from the year before<\/a>, while Misfits Market rescued 27 million pounds of food<\/a> (about 12 million kilos) in 2025, up from 23 million<\/a> (about 10 million kilos) in 2019, its first full year<\/a> of operation.<\/p>\n

This market is also using smarter labeling to grow its appeal. Shoppers who believe that food appearance is important tend to judge misshapen produce<\/a> as lower quality. But labeling these offerings as \u201cugly\u201d actually reduces that bias because it signals that the only flaw is cosmetic. Another study<\/a> found
\nthat in-store messages that raise shoppers\u2019 self-esteem can also make a different: In field tests, a \u201cDifferent Outside. Same Inside<\/a>\u201d message successfully urged people to overlook external appearance when making judgments, whether on people or food.<\/p>\n

The upcycling boom<\/p>\n

This sustainability push is also playing out in the processed and semi-processed foods market, where would-be waste is converted into upcycled products. Examples include flour milled from soybean pulp, snacks that leave the fruit peel on, and \u201cbites\u201d made from rescued bananas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Companies that want to market these goods can get third-party certification through Upcycled Certified<\/a> if they pass an audit of their supply chain. More than 600 products<\/a> from over 100 brands now carry it, and sales of certified products grew 17%<\/a> from 2024 to 2025. <\/p>\n

Here, too, perceptions of quality matter. In research on consumers\u2019 acceptance of these foods, my co-authors and I found that they made their purchase decision<\/a> based largely on whether they believed the product was as good as its conventional counterpart. <\/p>\n

But in this case, in contrast to \u201cugly\u201d produce, these products tend to be pricier, so they can\u2019t compete through discounting. Rather, they usually sell at a premium \u2013 like this small bag of specialty flour<\/a> going for $7. That means that it\u2019s even more important they signal higher quality so they can appeal to less price-constrained shoppers.<\/p>\n

Generational attitudes differ on this point, our research found<\/a>. Gen Z, millennials and baby boomers are more willing to buy foods certified as upcycled if they agree that the quality and environmental appeal are worth it. But Gen Xers \u2013 those who were born between 1965 and 1979 \u2013 show less enthusiasm, citing a perception of lower quality.<\/p>\n

That result fits what we generally know about Gen X shoppers. We discovered they are hard to persuade and cost-conscious, and they tend to rely much more on their own judgment. Gen Xers are also least likely to eat out or go shopping for groceries online, preferring instead to cook for themselves. That means they tend to scrutinize foods more closely in the store. <\/p>\n

A \u201cgreen\u201d benefit won\u2019t beat these skeptics. They need an assurance of quality from brick-and-mortar retailers they trust, rather than from online platforms.<\/p>\n

When logos matter<\/p>\n

The encouraging news from our research is that it sometimes doesn\u2019t take much to change beliefs. In two experiments, my co-authors and I tested whether a simple logo<\/a> could shift shoppers\u2019 perceptions of foods made from rescued ingredients. We designed one version that was round, green and descriptive, following established design principles: Circular logos signal higher quality<\/a>, while descriptive ones lift brand evaluations<\/a>. The other was hexagonal, monochrome and bare. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shoppers respond more favorably to logos that provide information and incentives, research has found.
\n From Jintao Zhang., CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n

We found that shoppers who saw products with the well-designed logo rated those foods higher in quality and were more willing to buy them than those who saw the same products with no logo. The poorly designed logo, meanwhile, made no difference. <\/p>\n

It was the increase in perceived quality, in our view, that made people more willing to buy. A logo that looks credible, explains itself and signals care can change what shoppers believe. A forgettable one might as well not be there.<\/p>\n

Closing this gap in perceptions, in short, doesn\u2019t require shoppers to care more about the planet. It requires them to believe the food is good. The rescue economy can make that case, but it has to lead with quality and not only with conscience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a paradox that drives the shopping decisions of many Americans: Almost three-quarters say they\u2019re feeling stressed out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-881108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}