Where to buy unpackaged organic fruits & vegetables?

Question

Most organic produce comes heavily packaged. What are the options to buy organic produce unpackaged? Please note that this question is not just about avoiding plastic but any kind of packaging as much as feasible.

Answer 1

There are many organic veg box delivery companies in the UK. If and to what extent the veg box contents can be customised, varies from one company to another. The produce is mostly unpackaged and delivered in one or more boxes (often cardboard) which are expected to be picked up by the driver on the next delivery and reused by the company.

Items can usually be bought in addition or instead of the veg box, but these may come in different type of packaging.

I've been trialling two of the bigger companies, Riverford and Abel & Cole, and have created the table below for the product packaging for each item I had delivered in 2019, both as part of a veg box or separately. I'll continue to update this table with more products.

Riverford boxes come open while Abel & Cole boxes come closed and tied with a string.

Boxes of both contain paper marketing material, like recipes & news. There is no option to disable these on either website. Abel & Cole boxes sometimes contain (possibly unwanted) promotional gifts.

When ordering outside of a box, each Riverford product comes individually packaged in paper bags and then put in a box. Abel & Cole puts the items unpackaged in a box if there are enough items to make a box, otherwise puts them in a paper bag.

For more info, see:

“FAQs” (Abel & Cole, 2019)

“Recycling Guide” (Riverford.co.uk, 2019)

Item	Abel & Cole (as part of box)	Abel & Cole (not part of box)	Riverford (as part of box)	Riverford (not part of box)
Butternut squash	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Banana	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Broccoli	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Leek	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
White onion	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Cucumber	Unpackaged	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Fennel	Unpackaged	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Cauliflower		Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Beetroot	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Clementine	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Beech netting
Courgette	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Pear	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Pepper	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Carrot	Unpackaged or biodegradable plastic bag	Unpackaged or biodegradable plastic bag	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Garlic	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Swede	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Apple	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Orange	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Pineapple	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Sweet potato	Unpackaged		Unpackaged
Celery	Unpackaged	Unpackaged		Plastic bag
Lemon	Unpackaged	Unpackaged		Beech netting
Red onion	Unpackaged	Unpackaged		Beech netting
Potato	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Asparagus	Unpackaged
Aubergine	Unpackaged
Babycorn	Unpackaged
Cabbage	Unpackaged
Radish	Unpackaged
Lime		Unpackaged
Pomegranate		Unpackaged
Watermelon		Unpackaged
Beans	Unpackaged	Paper bag
Sharon fruit	Unpackaged	Paper punnet
Avocado		Unpackaged		Paper bag
Mango		Unpackaged		Paper bag
Lettuce	Plastic bag		Unpackaged
Spring green	Plastic bag		Unpackaged
Dill		Plastic bag
Plum		Paper punnet
Shallots		Paper bag
Thyme		Plastic bag
Apricot	Paper punnet
Mangetout	Paper bag
Mini cucumber	Plastic punnet
Nectarine	Paper bag
Parsley		Plastic bag		Plastic bag
Sweet pepper		Plastic bag		Plastic bag
Watercress		Plastic bag		Plastic bag
Kale	Plastic bag		Plastic bag
Mushroom	Plastic punnet		Paper punnet
Purple sprouting broccoli	Plastic bag		Plastic bag
Pak choi	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Peach	Paper punnet	Paper punnet
Rosemary	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Spring onion	Rubber band	Rubber band
Strawberry	Paper punnet	Plastic punnet
Grape	Paper punnet	Paper punnet	Paper punnet
Spinach	Plastic bag	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Ginger	Paper bag	Paper bag		Beech netting
Tomato	Paper punnet	Paper punnet	Paper punnet	Plastic punnet