Looks do matter, at least when it comes to beets, carrots, apples and other fruits and vegetables.
A whopping 20 billion pounds of misshapen produce deemed too “ugly” to be displayed in grocery stores around the world go to waste each year, according toFeeding America.
Though packed with nutrition, these unwanted fruits and vegetables are left in farmers' fields or sent to landfills, where they decompose and produce methane, one of the most potent gases heating the planet to dangerous levels.
Amy Keller came up with a sweet solution.
In 1906, her family founded the Spangler Candy Co., maker of nostalgic treats such as Circus Peanuts, Sweethearts and 2 billion Dum Dums a year, making it the largest lollipop manufacturer in the world.
Made from “perfectly imperfect” but “perfectly good” misshapen fruits and vegetables, FAVES are delicious, nutritious and good for the planet, says Keller, Climate Candy’s co-founder and CEO.
With flavors such as cherry, strawberry, lemon and orange, “when people try FAVES, they can’t believe they’re made out of fruits and vegetables,” Keller tells PEOPLE.
The sweetness comes from only fruits and vegetables, she says. “We’ve told people, ‘We imagine a world where fruits and vegetables taste like candy,'” she adds.
But that’s not all. FAVES, which stands for “Fruit and Vegetable Sweets,” is helping to fight the climate crisis. It says so right on the candies’ sustainable wrappers: “We did it. We turned problems into candy, and now you can eat them.”
“Unharvested produce,” the packaging reads, “wastes vital energy and contributes to climate change.”
For more about Climate Candy and how to reduce food waste, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
Keller started thinking about ways to use all that unharvested produce when she visited theGlobal Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway,in 2018 with Kevin Wall — who produced theLive Earth climate benefit concertwithThe Climate Reality Projectfounder, former Vice President Al Gore — and Wall’s wife, Dr. Susan Smalley, co-founder with her husband of PTK Capital.
“We went there to learn about food security, and I witnessed the United Nations installing generators, due to climate change, to keep the glaciers refrigerated for all of the seeds that feed the world,” Keller says.
With the help of her co-founders Wall and Smalley, Climate Candy was born.
Mario Tama/Getty
“I knew there had to be a way to combine my passion for environmental issues and health with the family business creating sweet treats,” says Keller, a longtime climate activist and seven-time Ironman triathlete.
“I was determined to create a business that could make a contribution to the planet and make a positive impact on people’s lives and health while still allowing indulgence and the enjoyment we get from candy,” she adds.
FAVES, says Keller, “gives people the opportunity to positively impact the world.”
Each packet of the plant-based candy that’s consumed “means you’ve rescued one apple, two carrots, two strawberries, two cherries, along with slices of lemons, oranges, beets, sweet potatoes and pumpkins,” she explains.
With FAVES available on Amazon and other e-commerce sites such as Imperfect Foods, in retail stores such as Urban Outfitters, and at airport kiosks, it can add up quickly. They will be sold in stores such as The Vitamin Shoppe in June.
A 2-ounce package sells for $3.99; a 4-ounce packet is $4.99.
Climate Candy, which contains 96 percent imperfect fruits and vegetables, plans to introduce new flavors, too, including peach mango and blueberry raspberry.
So what would Keller’s late grandfather, Norman Spangler, a second-generation leader at her family’s iconic candy company, say about his self-described “disruptive granddaughter?”
“The fact that we have the ability to instill fun and color into any moment with what we’re doing is the same as when I was trading Dum Dums at the lunch table as a kid,” she says. “It’s just that brief moment of joy and nostalgia.”
She remembers advice she once got from her grandfather, who told her “not to eat the profit,” she says. “But that’s really hard when you own a candy business.”
source: people.com
