70% of food wastage in Australia is edible.
Australian food retailer Harris Farm Markets has launched upcycled food range, Re-purposeful Picks, to combat Australia’s $36 billion food waste problem
The product range is made from upcycling perishable food items into premium, quality products with longer shelf life. All products are available in-store only, with the program rolling out across all 25 stores across NSW and Queensland.
The grocer has been working with creative agency Special Group to create new branding for the product line. Digital creatives and social campaigns kicked off the range on owned channels, with the new brand activations currently live in-store.
Harris Farm Markets is the first Australian major grocery retailer to release a product range of this nature, coupled with a program to consistently build reuse solutions to prevent food waste.
Re-purposeful Picks marks Harris Farm’s fourth initiative to reduce its food waste, following the launch of Soilbiotic in February 2021, Curious Cuts in 2015, and Imperfect Picks in 2014. Food waste such as orange peel is also upcycled as food for livestock at the Harris’ family farm.
Each year 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted, with 70% of this being edible food, costing the Australian economy more than $36 billion each year. The retail sector contributes more than 500,000 tonnes to this total, according to the 2021 National Food Waste Baseline.
The Re-purposeful Picks range has more than 30 products and will extend the shelf life of items that would have otherwise been thrown away by up to two months. This includes upcycling fruit into smoothies, bread into breadcrumbs and adding vegetables to pizzas.
Harris Farm Markets co-CEO Tristan Harris says the range reflects customers’ concerns.
“Harris Farm has listened to the concerns of its customers about food waste in stores, and for more than a year we have been working on a way to make a meaningful impact without compromising our daily offering to customers,” says Harris.
“The Re-purposeful Picks range was created as a way for Harris Farm to take action at a store level to combat climate change, empowering each branch to reduce its daily food waste.”
As food waste differs from store to store based on the daily shopping lists and consumption of customers, Harris Farm Markets has equipped each store with the facilities to repurpose its food waste in-house to create Re-purposeful Picks.
“Through this new initiative, we will end up with less products on shelves that are nearing their expiry dates as items will be rotated sooner to create the Re-Purposeful Picks range. This means overall, we are creating longer life cycles to minimise food wastage across all 25 of our stores,” says Harris.
Credits:
Creative & Branding: Special Group
Harris Farm Head of Marketing: Ian Wells
Photography: Bonnie Coumbe
Videography/Animation: Dropbear Digital | Steph Timp & Charlotte Murray Harris Farm Digital Content Team | Special Group
Public Relations: Neon Black
