Harris Farm launches premium range made from food waste

As supermarkets jostle to woo customers, one is taking a premium approach to a problem that costs Australia $36.6 billion each year.

With sustainability credentials a new battleground for customers’ hearts among Aussie supermarkets, food retailer Harris Farm Markets is taking out the big guns with a new range made from food waste.

The Australian supermarket, which has stores across NSW and Queensland, has created a line of products called Re-purposeful Picks.

The range, which includes 30 items, are made from perishable food items that are transformed into “premium” products with a longer shelf life.

Harris Farm claims it is the first major Australian grocery retailer to release a product range of this nature.

It includes garlic bread for $1.99, four types of breadcrumbs for between $1.99 and $2.99, pizzas, salsa verde, air-dried kale chips selling for $4.99 and smoothies for $4.99.

Smoothies will come in flavours like banana, berry, mango and fruit salad. Picture: Supplied

Garlic bread will feature in the range as well. Picture: Supplied

Reducing food waste has become an increasing concern for everyday Aussies according to research from global data provider Semrush. In August this year, searches surged to their highest levels in two years with a growth of 1019 per cent, it found.

Meanwhile, out of the 7.6 million tonnes of food wasted annually, 70 per cent in Australia is edible, with the retail sector contributing 500,000 tonnes to the problem, according to the 2021 National Food Waste Baseline.

Extending the shelf life

The Re-purposeful Picks range 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 vegetables onto pizzas.

It includes artisan garlic bread selling for $12.99 with toppings such as chorizo and bocconcini; garlic and olive; pesto; and basil and prosciutto.

There are also five pizzas that retail for $8.99 with options like pumpkin, zucchini and feta; broccoli, cauliflower and pesto; kale, capsicum and olives; potato and mushroom.

“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,” said Harris Farm Markets co-CEO Tristan 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.”

Co-CEO of Harris Farm Markets, Tristan Harris. Picture: Chris Pavlich Photography.

According to research published in online journal Science, 25 per cent of carbon emissions generated from food production are attributed to wastage.

As food waste differs from store to store based on the daily shopping lists and consumption of customers, Harris Farm has equipped each store with the facilities to repurpose its food waste in-house to create the products.

“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,” Mr Harris said.

The National Food Waste Baseline modelling has shown that industry-led change could see food wastage in Australia cut in half over the next 10 years with a 50 per cent reduction target for retailers set for 2026.

Pizzas will use upcycled vegetables. Picture: Supplied

Sustainable milestones for the majors

In September, Woolworths said it had diverted 360,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, representing 80 per cent of the Australian business’ waste. This was the equivalent of the waste generated by 320,000 households.

It added it had donated the equivalent of 22 million meals of surplus edible food saved from landfill to its food relief partners.

Meanwhile, Coles has declared it wants to become “Australia’s most sustainable supermarket”. This week it announced a goal of having all stores powered by 100 per cent renewable energy in less than four years, including through wind, solar and renewable generator projects.

It has also planned to meet a net zero greenhouse emissions target by 2050.

Breadcrumbs will be available in white, wholegrain, sourdough and wholemeal. Picture: Supplied

Coles chief sustainability, property and export officer Thinus Keeve said in April that the company had been the first major Australian retailer to commit to buying renewable electricity through a power purchase agreement in 2019.

Woolworths has also announced a goal to be fully powered by renewables by 2025.

Aldi became the first chain to go 100 per cent renewable this year, with all of its stores, offices and warehouses powered with green energy.

“We are proud to be the first and only big Aussie supermarket to have achieved our renewable electricity goal earlier this year with the milestone reducing our carbon emissions by 85 per cent,” a spokesman said.