Dr. Sophie Attwood is a behavioral scientist and founder and director of Conduct International, which helps corporations and governments with options for higher well being, well-being and sustainability.
Ridged carrot medallions and potato cubes that go mushy whenever you cook dinner them is perhaps a few of the first objects that come to thoughts whenever you consider frozen meals.
A complete revolution when first launched to American supermarkets by Birdseye within the Twenties, frozen meals is a class that has undoubtedly endured the take a look at of time, but has by no means fairly succeeded in melting away its picture as a sub-par alternative to fresh produce — an issue not just for meals retailers, but additionally for the way forward for our quickly warming planet.
Dr. Sophie Attwood
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Why? Nicely, as a result of utilizing the standard freezer is likely one of the greatest methods for customers to chop the quantity of at-home meals waste, which is likely one of the large sources of planet-warming greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions, significantly methane. Every individual throws away a median of 174 kilos of meals per yr and an enormous portion of worldwide meals waste — round 60% — is generated by households, the United Nations stated final yr.
Shopping for frozen fruit, greens or meat, or freezing extra bread, leftover meals or milk prevents these merchandise from spoiling earlier than they are often eaten, that means customers save extra meals, eat extra vitamins and throw away much less of their hard-earned cash immediately within the trash. We’re a lot much less prone to discard frozen meals in comparison with contemporary, with frozen merchandise making up just 6% of our weekly total food waste.
For customers, turning to frozen meals shouldn’t be underrated, because it’s estimated to reduce household food waste by 47% in comparison with contemporary meals. Even contemplating the energy inputs required to energy folks’s freezers, the price of saving meals is considered round 300 instances better than the extra vitality prices of freezing, whereas 100 instances extra GHG emissions will be averted by saving meals versus these generated from freezer utilization. Setting the freezer at a slightly higher temperature can additional tip these equations in favor of going frozen.
Regardless of these advantages, grocers nonetheless battle to get customers to eat their (frozen) veggies.
Higher-for-you frozen choices at a Goal retailer.
Catherine Douglas Moran/Grocery Dive
Whereas the frozen meals class skilled an uptick in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic as purchasing extra sometimes grew to become the norm, customers typically nonetheless consider frozen produce, significantly fruit and greens, as having poorer texture, blander taste and less nutrition compared to fresh.
Many customers additionally don’t know tips on how to cook dinner meals immediately from frozen or are unaware of which meals are secure to freeze. For instance, fresh eggs, herbs, avocados and even ripe bananas can all be safely frozen and eaten defrosted.
So what must occur now to deal with this notion hole? Reframing frozen merchandise to boost their enchantment to customers is one good start line for retailers and types. This could contain rebranding present frozen merchandise to emphasise their quality or time-saving attributes (relatively than advertising and marketing them as options to meals waste) in addition to increasing the vary of choices. Right here, manufacturers can construct on present developments for new and interesting frozen foods, together with a wider collection of international delicacies meals, breakfast objects like bake-at-home croissants and bite-sized frozen snacks.
Retailers may also promote their frozen items, together with “upcycled” expiring produce. To deal with extra bread, British retailer Marks & Spencer repurposes unsold loaves into frozen garlic bread at the tip of the retail day. Growing the variety of aisles devoted to frozen meals, and integrating frozen cupboards subsequent to contemporary meals shows — similar to frozen spinach, berries or milk positioned subsequent to contemporary choices — may also draw consideration to those merchandise, as can “Preserve for longer. Change to frozen” prompts on-line or through shelf tags. These can be utilized dynamically on the finish of the day when contemporary merchandise, like bread, could have offered out and customers may be more open to considering frozen alternatives like frozen bread loaves.
A lot of the meals that buyers buy within the U.Ok. and produce house already has a small “appropriate for freezing” label or snowflake icon on the packaging, however that is not often in a outstanding sufficient place to draw a lot consideration. Shopper schooling through in-store or on-line advert campaigns can elevate consciousness on which merchandise will be frozen safely, like Sainsbury’s supermarket in the UK attempted in 2022.
Relatively than extolling the advantages of contemporary produce when introducing recipes to the general public, cooks can encourage customers to cook dinner tasty meals direct from frozen and emphasize their benefits by way of style, vitamin, comfort and flexibility — all values that talk on to a rising Gen Z viewers. Realizing tips on how to put together frozen meals as soon as defrosted is especially helpful as most frozen merchandise which are ultimately discarded at house are literally thrown out of the fridge as soon as defrosted, latest analysis has discovered.
As 2024 was the warmest year on record, and January 2025 the most popular month ever, there is no such thing as a higher time than proper now for retailers, manufacturers and cooks to assist customers’ efforts to waste much less meals at house by placing some cool again into the frozen meals class.
