Less plastic than supermarkets

Read the results of our plastic packaging comparison.

Riverford’s veg boxes contain 77% less plastic than equivalent packaged products from major UK supermarkets*.

Riverford’s 3 most popular veg boxes contained 77% less plastic packaging collectively when compared to representative, packaged products across 7 UK supermarkets.

Introduction

Riverford only use packaging when it’s strictly necessary to prevent food waste, and we’re always finding ways to use less. Over the last six months, we’ve been working particularly closely on our use of plastics. Although a necessary evil in some cases (without it, moist, leafy veg quickly dehydrate and wilt), we have reduced our plastic packaging wherever possible, and sourced innovative alternative solutions that still fit the products’ needs.

To see how we’re progressing after extensive research and innovation, we decided to run a comparable packaging test with the leading UK supermarkets. As we’re most well-known for our veg boxes, we decided to compare our 3 most popular boxes (Small Original, Medium Original and Medium Less Roots Original) to comparable packaged supermarket products.

The packaging in each box was weighed every week for four weeks in July (from the 1st – 29th), and compared against the same products from Morrisons, Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda. As our box contents change every week, take a look at the products that were compared in the table below:

Week	Items in small veg box (original)	Items in medium veg box (original)	Items in medium veg box (less roots)
W/C 1st July	New potatoes 600g	New potatoes 1kg	Onions 500g
	Bunched carrots 500g	Carrots 650g	Carrots 650g
	Summer greens 250g	Broad beans 800g	Sweet potatoes 600g
	Celery x1 bunch	Courgettes 500g	Summer greens 400g
	True spinach 200g	True spinach 300g	Courgettes 500g
	Cherry tomatoes 200g	Cos lettuce x1	Mixed salad leaves 80g
	Basil 40g	Romano peppers x2	Mini cucumber x2
	Radishes x1 bunch	Cherry tomatoes 250g	Romano peppers x2
W/C 8th July	New potatoes 600g	New potatoes 1kg	Bunched onions x1 bunch
	Red onions 400g	Red onions 500g	Carrots 650g
	Carrots 500g	Carrots 650g	French beans 300g
	True spinach 200g	French beans 300g	Baby spinach 150g
	Courgettes 400g	Mixed salad leaves 80g	Courgettes 500g
	Chestnut mushrooms 150g	Chestnut mushrooms 200g	Chestnut mushrooms 200g
	Romano pepper x1	Mini cucumber x2	Mini cucumber x2
		Tomatoes 480g	Sweet mixed peppers 250g
		Basil 40g
W/C 15th July	New potatoes 600g	New potatoes 1kg	Red onions 500g
	Spring onions 125g	Bunched onions x1 bunch	Bunched carrots 500g
	Carrots 500g	Carrots 650g	Sugarsnap peas 200g
	French beans 250g	Broad beans 80g	True spinach 300g
	Mixed salad leaves 80g	Baby spinach 150g	Courgettes 500g
	Mini cucumber x1	Zephyr courgettes 500g	Mixed salad leaves 80g
	Cherry tomatoes 200g	Romano peppers x2	Mini cucumber x2
		Cherry tomatoes 250g	Cherry tomatoes 250g
W/C 22nd July	New potatoes 600g	New potatoes 1kg	Bunched onions x1 bunch
	Bunched onions x1 bunch	Spring onions 125g	Carrots 650g
	Bunched carrots 500g	Carrots 650g	Baby spinach 150g
	Broad beans 500g	French beans 300g	Sweetcorn x2 cobs
	Courgettes 400g	Sweetcorn x2 cobs	Zephyr courgettes 500g
	Batavia lettuce x1	Courgettes 500g	Cos lettuce x1
	Romano pepper x1	Mixed salad leaves 80g	Mini cucumber x2
		Radishes x1 bunch	Cherry tomatoes 250g

Method

In total, the packaging of 30 Riverford products was compared to the supermarket equivalent. We went to each supermarket and brought organic, comparable produce where possible. It’s important to note that we didn’t select items from the supermarkets that were excessively packaged; we simply compared organic where possible, in the same weights.

We removed the packaging intact and retained it for weighing, made sure that any other materials such as cardboard were removed, and then weighed the plastic.

Riverford

Aldi

Asda

Lidl

Waitrose

Morrisons

Sainsbury's

Tesco

Here are the results

		Weight of plastic packaging (g)
		Riverford	Morrisons	Aldi	Lidl	Tesco	Waitrose	Asda	Sainsburys	Supermarkets average
small original	total 4 weeks	31	110	130	124	132	121	109	115
small original	average per week	7.75	27.5	32.5	31	33	30.25	27.25	28.75
medium original	total 4 weeks	26	131	149	118	128	130	133	127
medium original	average per week	6.5	32.75	37.25	29.5	32	32.5	33.25	31.75
medium less roots	total 4 weeks	28	119	138	109	130	109	128	125
medium less roots	average per week	7	29.75	34.5	27.25	32.5	27.25	32	31.25
Average across all boxes (4 week)		28.33	120	139	117	130	120	123.33	122.33	124.52
Average across all boxes (4 week)		7.08	30	34.75	29.25	32.5	30	30.83	30.58	31.13

Conclusions

Riverford’s veg boxes contain 77% less plastic than equivalent packaged products from major UK supermarkets*.

Riverford had the lowest total plastic weight each week compared to all supermarkets. There wasn’t much difference in the weight of plastic packaging across the different supermarkets; the lowest average per week was Lidl with 29.25g, and the highest was Aldi with 34.9g.

The results may show we are faring well in minimising our use of plastic – but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. Although we current use less than a quarter of the plastic packaging of supermarkets, we think we can get this closer to a tenth in the colder months (when produce is typically less perishable).

Disclaimer

*Less plastic collectively by weight when we compared the contents of our 3 most popular boxes to the comparable, like for like, packaged produce purchased from 7 major UK supermarkets: Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons and Waitrose. Please note, box contents change every week and can vary in packaging weight, but we will be running this test every quarter for consistency. The box testing was carried out from 1st July through to the 29th July 2018.

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