Woolworths Foods: customer champion, environmental villain?

In the days before carbon footprints and inconvenient truths, new products had to meet the following criteria before being given the green light:

1. Have the potential to make money for the business
   
2. Be feasible to make in terms of technology
   
3. Satisfy a customer need
   

Point three is where the plot thickens as the need for ready to eat products is as big as ever but there is also growing awareness that these products generate mountains of waste daily.

It will be interesting to see how the ‘so hot right now' paradigm of environmental sustainability will affect the likes of Woolworths Food, which is seen as a customer champion but still seem to be missing the sustainability factor.

May contain traces of…plastic?

Add to this all of the ‘free from' claims on products (gluten-free, GM free, etc) which are great from a health perspective, but they divert our attention from the packaging which in the long view can harm all of us.

Brands have a responsibility and I am sure the ability to delight the customer as well as the polar bears. In the mean time, while they (hopefully) scurry to develop sustainable convenience foods, watch this space for a corporate spinfest trumpeting green 'wins'.

We need to bear in mind that packaged sandwiches and bottled water are a new phenomenon and we can survive without them.