Category: Supermarket
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Wholly Ugly!
Whole Foods just announced that they will pilot selling cosmetically imperfect fruits and vegetables in several Northern California stores. Well, the retailer didn’t really announce it, USA Today did in a recent article. And then an unnamed Whole Foods spokesperson tentatively confirmed it to NPR. But still, this is both great news and a bit amusing. It’s great…
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Q&A: Scanning Away Food Waste?
Chances are you encounter radio frequency identification (RFID) technology quite often. You’re doing so when you use a proximity card at work or a hotel, track a package, check out library books, or become a scannable human. Within the food industry, RFID tags track food shipments’ progress at the pallet and truck level. The global packaging company…
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Survey Says…
There has been plenty of attention on wasted food in America recently, but very few assessments of how Americans feel about the topic. That changed yesterday with the publishing of the first national consumer survey on wasted food in the US. There’s an abundance of findings to be gleaned from the Johns Hopkins report, which…
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Love Food, Hate Wasting Money
You know what’s weird? We pay such close attention to saving a buck or two at the supermarket, but rarely consider how much money we’re throwing away through the food we waste.
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Friday Buffet
Here’s a roundup of recent wasted food news, from the sublime to the ridiculous. With the former, a UK org called Hubbub is pushing the humble (and potentially artistic) pancake as a way to reduce wasted food. Why pancakes? Because they’re so flippin‘ versatile! On the latter, the notion of ‘raccoon meat’ certainly feels disgusting at…
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Bien fait, Intermarché
I may be the last to write about the brilliant Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables campaign from French supermarket chain Intermarché, but I want to say that it’s the best initiative on food waste I’ve seen from one company. Selling ugly (moches) fruits and vegetables at a 30% discount after raising awareness with a line of…
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Visualizing Food Waste VII
This may set the record for the longest infographic ever, but it covers plenty of ground! Not sure I’d characterize food waste as a plague, but I’m a traditionalist with that word (Bubonic, locusts, etc.) Overall, it makes for neat viewing. The most eye-opening stat: The average supermarket tosses $2,000 of goods past their “sell-by”…
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Friday Buffet
Boom! Rhode Island’s state legislature proposes a landfill food waste ban and the private sector leaps into action, with news of a planned composting facility near Providence. — — I really enjoyed this Food Hacks piece on regrowing food from the ends and other undesirable parts of herbs and veggies. If I had any use for…
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US Food Manufacturers, Retailers Tackling Food Waste
The Food Waste Reduction Alliance, an industry group of food manufacturers, retailers and restaurants studying waste, recently announced their preliminary findings. Here’s the press release and here’s the entire study, done by BSR. Three thoughts: 1. It’s encouraging! The report is a sign that the US food industry is finally paying attention to food waste. The report…
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Baby Steps: The Slow Spread of US AD
When it comes to anaerobic digestion in the US, any news is good news. Even noncommittal, vague comments like those from a spokesperson for Ralphs Grocery Co. Ralphs is one of the Kroger-owned supermarket chains involved with the anaerobic digestion system at a Los Angeles distribution center that process 55,000 tons of food waste per…