- Food waste costs British families over £700 per year, on average1
- Food Waste Action Week 2023 is running from 6-12 March 2023
- Millions of UK households run their fridges too warm2
- Hellmann’s developed the Smart Jar which changes to indicate when your fridge is at the perfect temperature.
- The jar aims to highlight the right temperature for Brits to reduce food waste by helping keep food fresher for longer.
Hellmann’s is testing a special edition Smart Jar designed by illustrator Ellen Porteus that will tell you when your fridge is at the right temperature. By using temperature-sensitive ink, the design changes when your fridge is set below 5℃ to reveal a hidden layer.
Certain foods can last up to 3 days longer in a fridge set below 5℃ (vs 7℃), including milk – one of the most wasted food products in your fridge. Every day 3.1 million glasses of milk are poured down the sink.3
The innovative Smart Jar works as a fridge temperature checker with special ink activating and becoming fully visible when the fridge is below 5℃. Trial prototypes with a unique label design from illustrator Ellen Porteus have been sent to Hellmann’s fans, food waste campaigners and influencers nationwide to raise awareness of food waste during Food Waste Action Week.
We know how important it is to make the most of the food you buy. At Hellmann’s we’re constantly looking to help consumers reduce food waste and save money and think Smart Jar is an innovative way to get people talking about - and solving - this massive problem.
Rachel Chambers, Senior Marketing Manager of Hellmann’s
Hellmann’s partner, climate action NGO WRAP, also has an online tool explaining how to set any brand of fridge to its correct temperature to help reduce instances of food going to waste - check it out here.
Smart Jar is the latest initiative from Hellmann’s launching during Food Waste Action Week, with WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste citizen campaign running the theme of ‘Win, Don’t Bin’ during the week of action.
Every year more than 4.5 million tonnes of perfectly good food goes to waste in our homes, which could have been eaten. This costs the average family upwards of £700 a year – money none of us can afford to waste. Incorrect storage is a key trigger for food going off and getting the fridge temperature right can help food stays fresher for longer. I'm delighted WRAP has worked with Hellmann’s on this exciting trial. We need innovations like this pilot jar to help us make simple changes in our lives that will pay dividends. Food Waste Action Week is the perfect time to launch this brilliant trial.
Catherine David, Director of Collaboration and Change at WRAP
Hellmann’s seeks to become a force for positive behaviour change - adding to the enjoyment of food, while inspiring people to be more resourceful with the food they have to hand and waste less. Hellmann’s Fridge Night app, launched last year, helps Brits make their food and money stretch further through a 4-week in-app programme of weekly challenges and flexible recipes.
To find out more go to https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/fridge-night.html.
Media contact
For more information, please contact:
hellmanns@wcommunications.co.uk
About Hellmann’s
Hellmann’s is committed to helping people enjoy great tasting good for the simple pleasure it is, without worry or waste. For over a century, the brand has helped people turn even the simplest ingredients into delicious meals. Hellmann’s believes in the power of taste, because when food tastes good, less of it gets wasted. This belief has driven Hellmann’s to be a force for positive behaviour change around household food waste. Hellmann’s partnered with experts to conduct one of the longest and largest consumer behaviour studies on household food waste working with 2,000 families in Canada and the US, gathering insights to help consumers better use the food they already have at home and to waste less. Hellmann’s will continue to champion household food waste reduction through its “Make Taste Not Waste” campaigns, inspiring people to turn their left-behinds into easy, tasty meals. The past year alone, Hellmann’s has been able to inspire more than 200 million people across the US, Canada and the UK.
About WRAP
WRAP is a climate action NGO working around the globe to tackle the causes of the climate crisis and give the planet a sustainable future. Our vision is a thriving world in which climate change is no longer a problem. We believe that our natural resources should not be wasted and that everything we use should be re-used and recycled. We bring together and work with governments, businesses and individuals to ensure that the world’s natural resources are used more sustainably. Our core purpose is to help tackle climate change and protect our planet by changing the way things are produced, consumed, and disposed of.
WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign runs the annual Food Waste Action Week, which happens in early March each year in the UK and in partner nations. The Week is a whole week of action to raising awareness of the environmental consequences of wasting food and promoting activities that help to reduce the amount of food we waste. The third annual Food Waste Action Week will take place from 6-12 March 2023 with the theme ‘Win. Don’t bin,’ and it will demonstrate how valuable food is in our lives, how it unites people and how using up everything we buy saves money, time, and the planet.
https://wrap.org.uk/https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutritionand Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 148,000 employees and generated sales of €60.1 billionin 2022.Our vision is to be the global leader in sustainable business and to demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drives superior performance. We have a long tradition of being a progressive, responsible business.
The Unilever Compass, our sustainable business strategy, is set out to help us deliver superior performance and drive sustainable and responsible growth, while:
- improving the health of the planet;
- improving people's health, confidence and wellbeing;
- and contributing to a fairer and more socially inclusive world.
For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit www.unilever.com.