New Zealand Ditch Plastic Packaging of Fruit and Vegetables!

A group of supermarkets have abandoned the use of plastic wrapping for virtually all of their fruit and vegetables in a project labelled ‘food in the nude’.

‘Food in the nude’ is a New Zealand campaign to end plastic packaging for fresh produce in supermarkets. Foodstuffs have signed theNZ Plastic Packaging Declaration which is committed to making all store and private label packaging 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

The NZ Herald reports that sales of some vegetables have soared by up to 300% after a number of New Zealand supermarkets ditched plastic packaging!

Nigel Bond owner of one of the stores says their new refrigeration shelving system reminded him of when he was a kid going to the fruiterer with his Dad and one could smell the fresh citrus and spring onions. He says by wrapping products in plastic we sanitise them and deprive people of this experience. “When you take on these projects they can be a disaster and lead to customer pushback but in my 30 years in the supermarket industry this simple change has resulted in the most positive feedback from customers I have ever received.”

The initiative is part of the war against plastic. In New Zealand the days of single-use plastic shopping bags are numbered – most supermarkets are no longer providing them at the check-out – while the government late last year agreed to regulations for a mandatory phase-out across all retailers from July 1 2020.

The store manager Gary May first came up with the idea over two years ago when he noticed an increasing amount of fresh produce was being supplied in plastic wrapping. We thought this was crazy and vowed and declared to do something about it. “I went on a study tour to the United States and saw what the Whole Foods supermarket chain is doing over there,” he says. “They have a massive range of fresh food and their merchandising is almost an art form.”

Some produce, including berries, grapes and some tomatoes, still come in plastic containers while mushrooms are packaged in cardboard trays. Most of this packaging is, however, recyclable.

Foodstuffs have signed the NZ Plastic Packaging Declaration which is committed to making all store and private label packaging 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. It has also introduced recyclable food trays – a measure that gives customers the opportunity to divert more than 80 million trays from landfills every year.

British supermarkets test plastic-free zones

Now retailers in Britain - where even bunches of bananas are often sealed in plastic to keep them fresh and undamaged during long-distance shipping - are gradually following suit.

The Oxford branch of the Waitrose was selling 160 types of vegetables and fruits, plus cereals, grains, couscous, lentils, wine, beer and other items in bulk, in what was initially planned as an 11-week trial.

It has now extended its trial in the branch and announced that it would soon introduce the scheme in three other stores. Waitrose has said, however, that it has yet to establish whether plastic-free zones would work in all of its 344 locations across Britain.

Tesco and Asda, a low-cost retailer, have promised to stop using plastic for online shopping deliveries.

Morrisons, which like Tesco and Asda is among the biggest five supermarket chains in Britain, intends to install plastic-free produce zones in 60 locations by 2020.

Budgens Belsize Park, a London branch of the smaller supermarket chain Budgens - part of a 147-year-old company of nearly 250 franchises - has already ripped the plastic off more than 2,300 of its 14,000 products.

It’s easy to make small changes towards our shopping habits, try buying loose fruit and veg using a plastic free food bag, this eliminates the plastic from both the food packaging and the carrier bag. At Allwag we provide a wide range of eco-friendly alternatives when it comes to supermarket shopping, take a look at our range of cotton shoppers and reusable food bags.

Our plastic free food bag recommendations:

	Recycled PET Food Bags   RPET mesh bags in RPET pouch. Reusable fruit or vegetable bags as an alternative for plastic bags. Drawstring closure. Washing machine-friendly, BPA free and food-safe.  Take a look here.
	Cotton Reusable Food Bag   Reusable food bag, one side is solid cotton (140gr/m²) and the other side is mesh cotton (110gr/m²). Complete with a drawstring closure.  Take a look here.
	Recycled PET Food Bag with Pocket   RPET mesh bag with front pocket. Reusable fruit or vegetable bag as an alternative for plastic bags. Drawstring cord closure at the top. Take a look here.

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