A future-proof food box

Abstract

Our food system has a huge impact on the environment and is one of the largest contributors to a global threat: climate change. The meat industry alone accounts for 15% of the greenhouse gas emissions. So, the solution would be eating less meat and dairy. But although the Dutch eat most meat replacers in Europe, the annual meat consumption hasn’t declined between 2005 and 2019. The growing number of vegans and vegetarians in The Netherlands show that it isn’t always willingness to eat less meat, but often it is habitual behaviour that is hard to disrupt. Teaching and preaching sustainability is proven to be ineffective, since consumers often filter out information that doesn’t result in short-term benefits and personal gain. Filtering out information is to reduce the mental load that consists of several struggles that consumers experience in the cooking process: finding inspiration, sticking to their budget and eating healthy and varied food. And even if consumers consider sustainability, it almost never has top priority. Therefore, a product or service that wants to help consumers choose to consume more sustainably should, primarily, focus on offering personal value and short-term benefits. In addition, sustainability has to be subtly incorporated, but never be the main attribute of the product. Consumers are already looking for help with their struggles in the cooking process, like finding inspiration Consumers are already looking for help with their struggles in the cooking process, like finding inspiration and help online and buying products that make cooking simpler and more convenient, like food boxes. But, research shows that consumers quit their food box subscription, because it is too expensive and they have no control over the size, quality and price of the vegetables. Furthermore, the recipe and herbs/sauce of the food box are considered more valuable than the vegetables. Therefore, the product that is developed in this project is a food box without vegetables. Instead, consumers receive a recipe, for inspiration and including a shopping list, and a ready-to-use sauce made of natural herbs and ingredients, which helps them with the most expensive and complicated part of a meal. All recipes are vegetarian, which nudges sustainable consumption, without compromising on price and convenience. Vegetables can be purchased in the local supermarket or local market. This increases the physical barrier compared to regular food boxes, but gives the consumer a lot of flexibility in return. The focus of the solution is to reduce the mental load for the consumer by making eating less meat easier, not more complicated. The target group are generation Y and Z, because these generations are already most sustainable, like cooking and they live online, which make it easier to target them.