The Impact of Supermarket Marketing on Food Waste and Solutions in New Zealand

A wasteful relationship with food

There’s a song lyric from Big Yellow Taxi that says “Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees, please” This is something that a lot of people really struggle with, if something doesn’t look perfect there is a perception that it is yuck! and no good for eating. I’m completely aware of this mental conditioning about food that goes on in the world and even though I had a Nana that would just say “Oh, just cut it off, if it bothers you that much ” I still double take if there is a blemish on a apple or if a capsicum is looking anything other than the perfect shape and size. So where do these expectations about our food come from?

Supermarket marketing

There have been hunderds of articles written about the shrewd tactics that supermarkets use to get us to spend more money. One of the most used strategies is positioning fresh fruit and vegetables at the entrance, quite often accompanied by flowers. Psychologists explain that this encourages us to congratulate ourselves as we select our healthy choices first, so we don’t feel as guilty later as we wheel our trollies by other guilty pleasures. In order for this to work, fruit and vegetables need to meet certain presentation criteria and you guessed it this is where our expectations come from.

Consequences

The consequence of these marketing strategies include food loss and food waste. Food loss is food thrown away before it even gets to the consumer and food waste is what the consumer throws away, which is because supermarkets are clever at getting us to over-purchase. This University of Columbia case study estimates fruit and vegetables to be the worst food stuff wasted globally with 40-50% lost every year, with a large proportion ending up in landfill.

Solutions

The best solution will always be growing your own food since this eliminates waste all together. However, there are other ways to make a social statement and save a fortune.

Food rescue (Kaivolution)

Go Eco Food Rescue

(Kaivolution) was founded in 2014 to turn an environmental problem into a social solution.  They rescue and redistribute perfectly edible food from supermarkets, orchards and food producers.  Instead of the food going to landfill, it feeds people in our region and reduces carbon emissions. This is an incredibly useful community volunteer service and has a number of partner stores.

These guys are awesome!!

Local Council Initiatives

More and more local Councils are looking for ways to reduce waste and carbon emissions. This link is from Tauranga City Council and includes initiatives like food rescue and my favourite – Community Gardens.

Wonky Box

These guys take the wonky fruit and vegetables that farmers would normally throw away and package it up for you to buy.

The Odd Bunch

This initiative is from one of New Zealand’s leading supermarket chains. This is a step in the right direction for national scale marketing and changing social perceptions related to how we view food quality.

Counting Crows and Vanessa Carlton

Here’s the song in case you’re not familiar with it. Grow your own food whānau.