School:  University of Iceland

Category: Cooking aid, Sauce & Gravy, Seasoning, Soup, Spreadable

Short description: Vegetable base made from aesthetically challenged produce aiming to minimize food waste.

UGLY is a vegetable base made from vegetables that otherwise would go to waste, an all natural and ecofriendly product. A lot of vegetables go to waste because of redundancy but also, consumers have high demands on how their fruits and vegetables should look which has resulted in a high rejection rate by retailers. We want to fight this growing waste by turning it into valuable and likeable human nourishment giving those rejected vegetables a new meaning and value. This is where the idea of the name UGLY came from. The product consists mainly of tomatoes and carrots, both cultivated in Iceland on large scale and unfortunately have a high wastage rate. Iceland is special in the sense that due to its cool climate, it is not possible to cultivate all vegetable, which makes it ever more important to utilize as much as possible of the production and prevent waste. The modern consumer often faces problems like lacking time and prefers fast and convenient meals. UGLY is a product that is meant to provide any type of consumer with more options for home cooking, which will become easier, faster and tastier. The product encloses a perfect combination of vegetables, herbs and spice, yielding a rich pleasant taste to the meal. The final product is released in form of a thick paste and as desired by the consumer, the vegetable base can be diluted with e.g. cream, water, sour cream, oil, or whatever you can think of and thus easily be turned into a delicious meal.