Viktoria Salisbury of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) explains how a new initiative is helping consumers to make better use of food packaging to reduce household food waste.
Food has a central role in our lives and food production and retail make a major contribution to our economy. However, ground-breaking research published by WRAP revealed that in 2007 a staggering 8.3 million tonnes of the food and drink brought into the home (22% of purchases) was being thrown away. When the research was updated in 2012,[1] the amount of food and drink thrown away, that could have been eaten, in the UK had fallen by 21% from the 2007 figures. However, UK households were still wasting 4.2 million tonnes of good food and drink each year, worth £12.5 billion. Just under half of this avoidable food and drink waste (worth £5.6 billion) was classified as ‘not used in time’ i.e. thrown away because it had either gone off or passed the date on the packaging.
Early WRAP research [2] suggested that consumers were not making best use of food packaging in the home and this could be contributing significantly to the amount of good food and drink being wasted every year. Examples include removing food from packaging before storage (where the packaging is designed to protect and keep the food fresher for longer), not making use of its functionalities (such as reclosing packs to prevent dehydration in the fridge) and not looking at or following on-pack instructions for storage, freezing guidance and best before/use by date. In addition, feedback from consumers suggested that attitudes towards packaging might be a barrier to further reducing the amount of food thrown away. Therefore, more research was needed to inform a strategy to help address consumer concerns and enable them to take steps to prevent food going to waste.
In 2012 WRAP, INCPEN (Industry Council for Research on Packaging and the Environment), The Packaging Federation, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), Kent Resource Partnership (KRP) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) commissioned independent research into consumer attitudes, behaviours and motivations around food waste and food packaging to better understand how to help reduce the amount of good food thrown away.
Key findings
Many consumers do not recognise that packaging can help protect food in the home. While there is recognition that packaging is important to keep the product safe both in transit and within the store, there is less recognition that it plays a role at home. In fact, the prevailing view is the opposite i.e. that keeping products in the packaging leads to quicker spoilage. This results in consumers taking products out of their packaging, which can decrease the product life. This finding is important because, among the minority of consumers who do recognise that packaging can keep products fresher for longer, attitudes to packaging are significantly less negative.
Consumer confidence around storing food is high, but can be misplaced; the information on labels and how they are used could be more effective. Ninety percent of consumers are confident in their method of storing food items with habits developed through trial and error or passed down from parents. However, a large proportion are actually storing items in less than ideal conditions, reducing potential product life. Despite this confidence, there is demand for better on-pack guidance about storage and 84% of consumers say that they would use this.
There is recognition that food retailers and manufacturers have made progress in recent years to reduce the amount of packaging. Even those who consider packaging to be a major environmental problem acknowledge progress. Attitudes to packaging shift according to the context and the consumer mind-set. In a shopping context, packaging is a low priority, but it does play a supporting and practical role in product choice, for example aspects of packaging, such as re-closability can influence choice. When framed in the wider context of food issues, only 16% identify packaging as one of their top concerns. When prompted, consumers are concerned about the environmental impact of packaging, but this is matched by concerns about the impact of food waste on the environment. As awareness of the role packaging can play in keeping food fresher for longer increases, concerns around packaging waste reduce.
Concern about packaging does not appear to be compromising action on food waste reduction. Unlike previous surveys that suggested packaging may be a far more pressing issue for consumers than food waste, this recent research finds that, when prompted, consumers consider both to be ‘equally problematic’ and do not have a fixed opinion as to which is ‘worse’. However, they appear comfortable holding both views at the same time and those most concerned about packaging are indeed also those most concerned about food waste.
Attitudes to packaging are linked to the ability to recycle it. There is a strong correlation between concerns about packaging materials and how easy it is to recycle them at home. The more difficult it is to recycle an item, the more concern is expressed about it (despite the fact that much lightweight and mixed material packaging has other environmental benefits and is just as resource-efficient as easily recyclable packaging).
Love Food Hate Waste Fresher for Longer
The research identified clear opportunities to help consumers make the most of food packaging to reduce household food waste. To take advantage of these opportunities the research partners developed ‘Fresher for Longer’, a consumer facing behaviour change initiative, delivered through WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign. The initiative was designed to show how food can last longer if kept in its original packaging and encourages consumers to make best use of it. Using colourful, bright and fun materials, the campaign delivered simple effective tips to consumers, such as ‘store food in its original packaging until it’s opened’, ‘reseal it once opened’ and ‘follow the storage guidance on the pack’. The materials developed for the campaign, which include a bagclip postcard, posters, and storage wheels for the fridge, are freely available for anyone to download from the WRAP partners’ website.
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The Fresher for Longer initiative was launched in March 2013. Information was made available on the Love Food Hate Waste website and was accompanied by a day of radio interviews, an integrated social media campaign and innovative poems created by the comedian Kate Fox. Fresher for Longer launched with Marks & Spencer in Tunbridge Wells; the store distributed 30,000 Fresher for Longer food storage wheels to help customers find the best way to store different foods. It has introduced a number of packaging innovations to help customers waste less, such as vacuum ‘skin’ packs on fish and meats and the ‘It’s Fresh’ tab in strawberry punnets. These developments help maintain the quality and freshness of the products. Marks & Spencer has worked to reduce the amount of packaging it uses and to ensure the packaging is easily recyclable in order to make it as simple as possible for customers to live more sustainably.
The Co-operative Food took part in a Love Food Hate Waste Fresher for Longer in-store trial campaign for 9 weeks in autumn 2014, which was funded by the Welsh Government. The campaign was delivered by WRAP in the Cooperative Food Porthcawl store and utilised a large number of in-store marketing channels including posters, shelf barkers, ceiling hangers and till screen adverts, all carrying the Fresher for Longer artwork with hints and tips to help customers make the best use of food packaging to keep their food fresher for longer. In addition, an information stand remained in store for the duration of the campaign providing customers with more information and the opportunity to make a pledge to reduce food waste at home by making better use of food packaging. Leaflets and posters were on offer helping to increase awareness of the issue of food waste and showcasing the packaging innovations introduced by The Co-operative Food to help its customers keep their food at its best. The majority of store colleagues also received Love Food Hate Waste training to enable them to confidently engage and advise customers as well as reduce food waste in their own homes. The results of this trial are expected to be published in autumn 2015.
There is a role for everyone to play in tackling the huge issue of food waste, whether through changing the way we store food in our own homes or raising awareness of the benefits of reducing food waste and the role that packaging can play. Food and packaging organisations (retailers, manufacturers, trade associations) can build on the initiatives already in place to innovate and improve their packaging and raise awareness among consumers about labelling and packaging innovations which help to reduce food waste, so that they can make best use of them.
Viktoria Salisbury is Community Partnerships Project Manager with WRAP
Email: Viktoria.salisbury@wrap.org.uk
To find out more about Love Food Hate Waste, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com Facebook: Love Food Hate Waste – Community Twitter: @LFHW_UK. WRAP partners’ website www.partners.wrap.org.uk
References
1. Household Food and Drink Waste in the United Kingdom 2012 (WRAP, 2013;http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/hhfdw-2012-main.pdf.pdf
2. Food Storage and Packaging (WRAP, 2007; http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/food-storage-and-packaging);
Helping Consumers Reduce Fruit and Vegetable Waste (WRAP, 2008;http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/helping-consumers-reduce-fruit-and-vegeta...); Consumer insight: date labels and storage guidance (WRAP, 2011;http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/consumer-insight-date-labels-and-storage-...)
3. Consumer Attitudes to Food Waste and Food Packaging (WRAP, 2013;http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Report%20-%20Consumer%20attitude...
