Fruit & Vegetables
Here in the UK we can grow a wonderful variety of fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year. Despite this, the UK still imports approximately 47% of our vegetables and a massive 83% of our fruit. To reduce this, we challenge you to shop in a ratio of 3 Green to 2 Orange and 1 Red in any month. So, for every 3 items of fresh produce which are UK sourced, you can only buy 2 items grown in The EU and 1 item grown further afield.
Remember to check the labels – just because a produce is in season in the UK, it does not mean that your local shop will not have sourced it from further afield during these months. Food packaging will always say where the item has come from. You can also look for the Red Tractor symbol when shopping in supermarkets as this identifies foods that are UK sourced.
Vegetables
As you can see, there are more green months than any other colour, which reflects the fact that we grow 53% of all of our vegetable crop in the UK. The red zones are the really damaging ones to our environment, so these are the ones to focus on if you want to reduce your seasonarian index.
Fruit
Fruit is more challenging because we like to eat exotic varieties, as highlighted in the table below. This is reflected by the statistic that the UK imports 84% of its fruit.
Click here to download the tables above and put them on your fridge or perhaps take them with you when you go shopping! Go to our Seasonarian calculator to work out how much of your fruit and vegetables are being imported and what simple changes you can make to reduce this.
Head over to our Fruit and Vegetable Shops to find out more