Retail Potential for Upcycled Foods: Evidence from New Zealand

Francesca Goodman-Smith,Siddharth Bhatt,Rajneesh Suri,Robyn Moore,Jonathan Deutsch,Miranda Mirosa,Hongjun Ye

doi:10.3390/su13052624

Francesca Goodman-Smith, Siddharth Bhatt + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052624

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Abstract

Food waste is a problem that manifests throughout the food supply chain. A promising solution that can mitigate the food waste problem across various stages of the food supply chain is upcycling food ingredients that would otherwise be wasted by converting them into new upcycled food products. This research explores perception of upcycled foods from a panel of 1001 frequent shoppers at a large grocery retailer in New Zealand. Findings from this research uncover several hitherto unexamined aspects of consumers’ evaluations of upcycled foods. These include consumers’ indications about shelf placements of upcycled foods, willingness to buy upcycled foods for people or pets other than themselves, and consumers’ preferences about information pertaining to these foods. This research advances our understanding of how consumers perceive upcycled foods and provides actionable insights to practitioners in the food industry.

Highlights

Food waste is a problem that occurs at all levels of the food supply chain
10% of the respondents indicated that they had heard about upcycled foods while 84% of respondents indicated that they had not heard about upcycled foods
6% participants indicated that they would not try or buy such products while 13% of participants were unsure. This preliminary finding is encouraging to manufacturers and marketers of upcycled foods, in that many shoppers are willing to try or buy products with upcycled ingredients

Summary

Introduction

Food waste is a problem that occurs at all levels of the food supply chain. A promising solution that can mitigate the food waste problem across various stages of the food supply chain, at least in part, is upcycled foods. Spratt et al [1], suggest that—“Upcycled ingredients and food products elevate food that would otherwise be wasted to higher uses and have tangible benefits to the environment and society.”. Association (UFA) defines upcycled foods as those—“that use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.”. In essence, upcycled foods use food ingredients that would otherwise be discarded. Soup made from carrot peels or a cereal bar made from spent grain resulting from beer brewing are examples of upcycled foods [2,3,4]

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