From crooked carrots to contorted potatoes, it’s time to eat your ugly veggies.

Loblaw’s this week launched its Naturally Imperfect line of produce in select stores in Ontario and Quebec.

Apples and potatoes are the first unattractive crops on store shelves and cost about 30 per cent less than their pretty peers.

“In many regards, people have become conditioned to buying something that looks perfect,” Dan Branson, the company’s senior director responsible for produce, floral and garden items, told Yahoo Canada News.

“But many of us have gardens in our backyards and we know that what’s produced in our back yards, some of it can look perfect, other parts of it look a little bit different – maybe misshapen or with some scars on it – but at the end of the day it all tastes exceptional.”

The exponential growth across the country of farmers markets, with their sometimes aesthetically disadvantaged array of produce, suggests Canadian consumers know that.

Ugly fruit and vegetable sales have been a huge hit in France and the U.K. since the European Union relaxed its rigid rules in 2009 to allow their sale.

Intermarche, the third-largest supermarket in France, launched its “inglorious” line as a pilot project early last year. Within months, the line went nationwide.

“This initiative is a complete success because it’s a win-win-win campaign: consumers get the same quality products for cheaper, the growers get money for products that are usually thrown away and Intermarche increases its business by selling a brand new line of products,” the company said on its website.

In just the first two days, stores averaged 1.2 tons in sales of the imperfect. By the end of the year, five other French grocery chains had launched their own ugly fruit and vegetable lines.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes of food a year is wasted around the world.

There is an estimated $31 billion worth of food waste annually in Canada across all food and food service sectors, a recent report by the group Value Chain Management International explained.

And more than 30 per cent of fruits and vegetables in North America don’t make it onto store shelves because of their imperfections, according to the David Suzuki Foundation.

The main concerns for Loblaw’s were offering affordable, health food for customers and good revenue returns for growers, Branson said.

The marked up, misshapen and marred produce once relegated to use in juice, sauces or soups will now be on store shelves, offering a wider array of prices and selection, he said.

The Naturally Imperfect line is now for sale at Real Canadian Superstores and some No Frills locations in Ontario, as well as some Maxi stores in Quebec. Depending on the results, Branson said the chain will look at expanding to other provinces.

