Blemished, non-uniform product is turned into more processed food products or animal feed. Tomato soup isn’t made from the prettiest tomatoes. Blemished apples become applesauce. Tropicana puts a picture of a beautiful orange on the bottle, but they don’t care about what the ones going into the juicer look like. Consumer preferences for nice looking fruits and vegetables have little to no impact on overall food waste.
>Food loss occurs for many reasons, with some types of loss—such as spoilage—occurring at every stage of the production and supply chain. Between the farm gate and retail stages, food loss can arise from problems during drying, milling, transporting, or processing that expose food to damage by insects, rodents, birds, molds, and bacteria. At the retail level, equipment malfunction (such as faulty cold storage), over-ordering, and culling of blemished produce can result in food loss. Consumers also contribute to food loss when they buy or cook more than they need and choose to throw out the extras (See Buzby et al (2014)).
This mentions a lot of different causes of food waste, and appearance ranks as a small factor. It certainly doesn't support your assertion that the appearance of produce is a primary cause of food waste.
