Jan 22, 2020 | Katherine Rich Comments
The food and grocery scene in 2020 will no doubt be dominated by several significant occurrences that came to the fore in the second half of last year. The first of these was the formation by the NZ Food & Grocery Council of a committee to tackle one of the big...
Dec 16, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Banning plastic items such as fruit stickers, cotton buds, microbeads, straws, supermarket bags and the next small plastic item deemed Public Enemy No. 1 can give the impression of environmental progress, but the bigger gains must come from tackling New Zealand’s more...
Dec 9, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
The food and grocery sector embarked recently on two initiatives that promise benefits far into the future. Health & safety and sustainability have for many years been at the forefront of companies’ thinking. Most can point to work they’ve done and are continuing...
Nov 21, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Consumer NZ has done its annual “testing” of sunscreens and has hit the media claiming many sunscreens don’t measure up to their packaging claims. It’s nonsense. I’ve put “testing” in inverted commas because if the methodology used is the same as in previous years,...
Oct 24, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments, Sunscreens
Slip-Slop-Slap was a popular sun-care campaign known by those generations who remember the 1980s. It came with a catchy tune and a cute bird mascot, and the message was so simple that small children could understand it. Years later the word ‘Wrap’ was added, as in...
Sep 30, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Working for the food and grocery sector, it’s a privilege to visit companies behind many of the products on our supermarket shelves, to meet the teams and see first-hand their heritage and innovation. Start-up stories are fascinating. From the concrete mixer that...
Sep 23, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Today we live in a throwaway society. Every day we use stuff that can’t be re-used or recycled, so we throw it away. It’s much different to my grandmother’s generation. She saved everything, even flour bags. What couldn’t be fed to the chooks or burnt on the fire...
Sep 6, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Plastic is everywhere. It’s used in almost every industry you can think of – construction, transportation, electronics, healthcare, and agriculture. And when you look down the supermarket aisle you can see how big a part it plays in the food and grocery sector. It’s...
Aug 26, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Confidence surveys show that after a positive start to the year, many businesses are struggling to deal with a combination of factors that are driving down their confidence to invest further in their own business, such as upgrading equipment or innovating. Two bank...
Aug 12, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
Environmental sustainability has become a big part of most companies’ thinking and planning, and those in food and grocery are doing some of the ground-breaking work on this. Starting with the supermarket chains, everyone’s aware of their bans on the use of single-use...
Jul 25, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
One of my favourite thinkers from the 20th century is Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I’ve read a lot about her life and her advocacy and have found her writings and works inspiring. Recently, as the New Zealand Food &...
Jul 10, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
The food and grocery sector (as it should) puts a lot of emphasis on health & safety. Be it on the farm, in the factory, in the distribution centre, on the road, or in the supermarket – involving everything from farm-bike safety and forklifts, to driving skills...
