Perfectly edible and delicious fruit and vegetables are being wasted on a massive scale on UK farms but one British business is proving that shoppers are willing to embrace it.

It is estimated that between 20-40% of all produce is rejected before it reaches the supermarket shelf and is often left in the field to rot because it doesn’t meet strict visual standards.

Oddbox is London’s first and only wonky fruit and veg box scheme and has seen 650% growth in the past year since launching two years ago and wants to encourage more people to join the wonky veg revolution.

The demand for its delicious, affordable, misshapen and surplus veg boxes has been astronomical, so the business is now focusing on expanding its logistical capability, broadening its delivery area and adding more growers. It currently has 1,500 loyal customers in south London but there is a waiting list of over 2,500 people from the rest of the country who are demanding wonky veg delivered to their door.

Inspired by eating a misshapen but delicious tomato in Portugal, the founders wondered why they couldn’t get this in the UK. When they returned from holiday, they convinced two British farmers to sell them their imperfect and surplus produce which they paid a fair price for. They boxed it up, charged 30% less than other veg box schemes and delivered them to 10 customers in south London from the back of their car.

Two years on and they have delivered more than 25,000 boxes to people’s homes, 4,000 boxes to offices and rescued 150 tonnes of food waste.

The continuing rise of plant-based and flexitarian diets and the desire to reduce plastic packaging has provided a surge in customers who count Oddbox as one of the good guys in an increasingly complex shopping environment.

Emilie Vanpoperinghe, Oddbox co-founder explains: “Food surplus is a massive issue that isn’t going away and we all need to play our part in reducing it. We are on a mission to fundamentally shift food standards and normalise wonky produce and limit food waste.

"It’s madness that perfectly edible and delicious produce is being left on the plant or ploughed back into the field because it doesn’t meet strict specifications.

"We are making it worthwhile for farmers to pick this imperfect produce by paying them a fair price and by doing so, we have rescued 150 tonnes of food from being wasted. We have big ambitions to grow to the whole of London and beyond with a target to save 500,000 tonnes of UK and EU fruit and veg waste by 2022. Come and join the wonky veg revolution!”

Andrew Brice, owner of Church Farm said: “Oddbox has helped my business in a big way by offering me a fair price for a product that otherwise would have been wasted. Before Oddbox, we wasted between 25-40 per cent of the asparagus we grew because it’s not perfectly straight, which for a product which takes three years to establish and start producing spears, really does impact us.”