Fresh Guardian

The Fresh Guardian informs consumers through a total of four overview cards, adjusted to seasonal availability, about correct storage, no-gos and refresh/ rescue options for fruits and vegetables. By placing the cards in delivery boxes, including a magnetic attachment for permanent visibility on the refrigerator, an increasing number of households are reached. By implementing a social norm and addressing loss aversion, an additional boost in motivation is achieved. Hence the call to action from the Fresh Guardian is: Don´t lose freshness, simply prolong your relish!

What does the topic mean?

In Germany, approximately 11 million tons of food are thrown away each year, with 59% of the waste occurring in private households. Of this waste, over 1.87 million tons is classified as avoidable food waste. Avoidable food waste refers to products where disposal is due to preventable factors such as excessive purchase quantity, limited shelf life, or improper storage. Fruits and vegetables account for 35% of avoidable food waste. In over half of the cases, shelf life is cited as the primary reason for fruit and vegetable disposal. A closer look shows that in 38% of cases, fruits and vegetables have spoiled/ become bad or were perceived as visually unappetizing/old (14%).

Goal of the nudge

The goal of our nudge is to establish a new and better storage habit of fruits and vegetables. The aim is to prevent avoidable food waste of fruits and vegetables caused by incorrect storage and estimation of shelf life.

    Needs analysis

    • High resource consumption
      Growing, storing and transporting fruits and vegetables requires a large amount of water, energy, land and personnel.
    • Rising world market prices
      The perceived increase in demand, caused by a high disposal rate, leads to an increase in world market prices of basic foodstuffs and disadvantages the poorer population.

    Cause analysis

    • Status Quo Bias

      People overly prefer the status quo to change without logical justification. Therefore, habits of storing fruits and vegetables continue without checking to see if it is done correctly.

    • Attitude-Behavior Gap

      People do not behave in everyday life as their attitudes suggest. Most people are aware of the problem of avoidable food waste. Due to a lack of motivation or knowledge about individual action options, this is not reflected in their own actions.

    • Attention Bias

      People have a tendency to focus their attention and perception on certain conspicuous stimuli or information, while blocking out the rest of the information. Due to conspicuous packaging designs, information on the correct storage, e.g. on the packaging, is perceived less or not at all.

Target Group

Our Nudge targets private households that repeatedly consume fruits and vegetables and regularly produce avoidable food waste. The online grocery market has been growing steadily since 2014, with sales of approximately €4 billion in 2022. Since grocery deliveries bring the flyer directly into consumers’ homes, this is where we start.

Added value of the nudge

  • Conserving resources & saving greenhouse emissions

    Improved use of purchased fruits and vegetables reduces the quantity and need for fruits and vegetables, saving valuable resources and preventing greenhouse gas emissions.

  • Reduction of avoidable food waste

    Annual savings of up to 340 thousand tons of avoidable fruit and vegetable waste in Germany.

  • Creating awareness of storage and shelf life

    By increasing awareness of the connection between awareness of correct storage of fruits and vegetables in one´s own household and the associated freshness, a more realistic assessment of shelf life can be created.

CONTACT US

Inken Wiese

inkenwiese@gmx.de

Julia Michels

ju.michels@gmx.de

Marwan Elsayed

marwan.elsayed@stud.hshl.de

Ricarda Gibson

ricarda.gibson@stud.hshl.de