UK retailer Sainsbury’s has launched a new in-store ‘Banana Station’ scheme as part of its £10 million 'Waste Less, Save More' initiative.
The initiative has been developed to counteract UK households binning 1.4 million bananas every day, which costs around £80 million every year.
Paul Crewe, head of sustainability, engineering, energy & environment for Sainsbury’s said: “The quest for a a perfectly-peeling banana is resulting in waste that could be avoided. To help customers waste less food and save more money, we’ve launched pop-up ‘Banana Rescue’ stations in our stores.
“There, shoppers will find recipe inspiration - including our very own tried and tested recipe for home-made banana bread - as well as everything they need to help make their own loaves, including mixing bowls, blenders, baking tins and storage solutions.”
These pop-up stations could be available in more than 500 stores across the UK in the coming weeks.
Banana Habits
Sainsbury’s conducted a consumer survey, regarding bananas specifically, to help ‘customers consider other ways to use their flawed banana’.
The research found that a quarter of us (25%) prefer to eat a banana as a quick and healthy snack, while a fifth regularly have one their lunchboxes during the week.
Sixteen per cent of banana eaters enjoy them at breakfast and just under one in 10 will have a banana pre or post exercise (8%), make banana smoothies (8%) and use them in desserts (7%).
Banana & Bread
The news comes as Sainsbury’s also announced that it’s in store banana bread trial – which sees unsold fruits used by the in store bakery teams – has been extended to 110 stores nationwide.
Crewe added, “While we’re pleased with the success of the in-store trial, we’re determined to help shoppers reduce the number of bananas going to waste at home too.
“Sixty one percent of Britons admit they never use otherwise discarded bananas in baking, so to inspire customers to use their fruit in different ways, we’ve created an area in store dedicated to get Britain baking with bananas! There’s no need to bin the bruised ones anymore.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O'Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
