Super Simple Supermarket Swaps!

I recently went to the supermarket...and I'm sure you did too! Because we all purchase food so frequently (we have to!) it is one of the biggest ways our lives have an impact on our environment. The best thing about this fact is that we can easily choose whether this impact is good or bad! How empowering is this?! I thought I would put together a list of things that I think about when making certain food purchases that you can choose to do as well.

Happy shopping!

Honey, peanut butter, jam etc

You might have noticed that a few months ago there was a huge media spotlight on Capilano's honey because it was found to be a weird mixture of imported honey from China, Argentina, Mexico and other countries that they routinely import honey from, rather than being the wonderful Australian honey that everyone thought it was! 

When I shop for honey/jam/peanut butter etc I make sure of a few things:

1. That I buy local (Victorian, or at the very least, Australian) honey - I always check the label for this and this goes for any other food I buy as well. The honey I most recently bought was actually from Templestowe which is the suburb beside where I live which was super exciting! 

2. I make sure that the product I am buying comes in a glass jar with a metal lid. You might notice you can buy some honey, jam or peanut butter in glass jars with plastic lids - how frustrating is that?!

3. I try and make sure that I choose smaller brands rather than big business so that I am supporting both business and bee diversity.  

Made in Templestowe!

The best kind of jam - made by family members in a reusable jar! 

Darrell's peanut butter is my favourite. Simple ingredients, simple packaging with just a paper label and it even has his bigpond email address as the contact! Love it! 

Bread 

Bread from the supermarket is almost always wrapped up in plastic bags. Yuk. Bread is super easy to buy without packaging if you shop at a local bakery - usually if you're at a supermarket, there is a bakery nearby. If you're in doubt, Baker's Delight always lets me buy me bread in my own cloth bags so I know for sure that they would let you do this too. 

Spices and nuts (and all pantry goods, really)

It is very easy to buy spices and nuts that are imported without even realizing. I find that if I do some simple label checking that I can often find an Australian alternative of the same spice or nut that I am after - it is just a matter of checking a few different brands. 

The next step is to try and buy nuts and spices from The Source Bulk Foods or any similar shop where you can buy these products using your own containers brought from home. I personally don't know any supermarkets that allow you to do this just yet. Coles are almost there with their 'Scoop and Weigh' section but there is no option yet for you to bring your own container. This is because you can't tare the scales which means you are forced to use their single-use plastic ziplock bags which I think is really silly! 

Some foods I bought from The Source Bulk Foods this week using my own containers - almonds, oats, curry powder, baking powder, chia seeds and nutritional yeast!

Tomatoes

Bottled/canned tomatoes are a weekly staple for my family. This is better than buying fresh tomatoes in winter because they this would mean buying tomatoes that were brought in from somewhere warmer than Melbourne (usually Queensland or overseas) as they don't grow in cold weather. Canned/bottled tomatoes are something we could easily think was always going to be local and Australian because in Summer so many of us, gardeners or not, go on the journey of growing tomatoes because our climate is PERFECT for growing this amazing fruit. The unfortunate thing though is that a lot of the tomatoes on our supermarket shelves are imported from Italy and this is devastating to me. Why on earth would we import something that we can easily grow ourselves? 

So how do we avoid making the mistake of supporting Italian tomatoes instead of homegrown ones? My process of selection is to check labels and avoid imported Italian tomatoes, then avoid big business brands (like Coles tomatoes) and to support smaller Australian brands instead.

Say no to Italian tomatoes...like I am trying to get my mum to do! 

 Label checking can help you find where the product is from. 

Shop from the deli/butcher/fishmonger rather than the fridge section

Now I might not eat the foods that are found in the deli apart from maybe the olives, but if you're a cheese and meat sort of person this one is an easy must! Cheese and meat come in huge amounts of plastic packaging. By shopping from the deli and butcher you can bring your own containers and buy these foods package free. Simply ask the person serving you to use your container and tare its weight before filling. 

 I recently took my own container when buying fish for my partner's dinner. The woman serving me was very happy to use my container and I got some smiles from shoppers around me who must have loved the idea too! 

Buy milk in reusable glass bottles 

This sounds like the olden days but I believe it's actually our exciting future! Again, I don't drink cows milk but for those who do, milk bottles are a huge waste, even if they can be recycled (although, they won't be because nothing in Australia is being recycled with our current waste crisis!). 

I recently watched a segment on channel nine about a milk company who can't keep up with the demand of their reusable glass bottles! They have had to use crowd-funding to help them purchase more equipment and to increase their machinery which will support their business to swap from part plastic containers and part glass to 100% reusable glass! 

 

For more info on this company and making a pledge click here.

Ditch the plastic fruit and veg bags OR use the mushroom bag instead

If you looked in my trolley at the supermarket or basket at the farmer's market, you would see all of my loose fruit and veg looking like a rainbow side by side! Normally I think you would just see a sea of plastic in an average person's trolley. Why do we think we need to put all this fruit and veg in plastic bags? Things like potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, apples etc are fine loose because we have to rinse them when we get home anyway. Trickier things like grapes, tomatoes, brussels sprouts etc I put into my own cloth bags OR if I'm really stuck, I'll put them in the mushroom bags instead of the plastic bags and then compost the paper bags at home. 

Another thing to note is that its often easy to assume that all our fresh fruit and veg is Australian, but think again! Have you ever noticed those labels on the shelves under the fruit and veg? Make sure they say 'Australian grown' and avoid buying them if they don't! 

Purchasing brussels sprouts in the paper mushroom bag is a good way to avoid the plastic ones.

Chocolate 

The best chocolate brand for packaging would be Loving Earth because their whole packaging (including the 'plastic' wrapping) is home compostable! How cool is that! 

Second best would be any brand in cardboard packaging that avoids a plastic overlay because these are recyclable. A third option would be Lindt because they have the cardboard and metal inner that again, is recyclable. 

So that's my wrap up of Super Simple Supermarket Swaps! Every time you make conscious choices like these you are sending a message to our supermarkets and producers that you like this product and want more of it! Vote with your dollar for plastic-free Australian goods to make a real difference every time you shop! :) 

Like these suggestions? Have anymore? I would love to hear from you! Comment below or get in touch! 

These are simple questions that will help you when you're at the supermarket. If this is new to you, you might want to download this picture that I've created and set it as your iphone background until these habits become second nature :) 

Love, 

Liza