Now woke scientists say we should label bananas as ‘sad’ to reduce food waste

With more than 1 billion meals thrown in the trash every day worldwide, there’s no doubt that society needs new ways to reduce food waste.

Now scientists say they may have an answer: They’re giving food products “sad” labels to help us empathize.

Cartoons of sad-looking bananas boost sales of the fruit when it is not in bunches, according to new experiments in German supermarkets.

According to the researchers, when people go to buy bananas, most are more inclined to grab a bunch than several individual bananas.

This finicky consumer preference means that individual bananas are overlooked, tend to turn black and are thrown away, contributing to the food waste problem.

Research shows that we feel sorry for food when it’s in danger of being thrown in the bin, but this can be alleviated by giving it a ‘good home’: our stomach.

“The need to belong is one of the most fundamental human motivations,” says study author Dr Lisa Eckmann from the University of Bath’s retail laboratory.

“Applying sadness to a few stray bananas evokes a sympathetic response from shoppers.”

According to the UN, the world wastes 1.05 billion tons of food per year – a figure expected to double by 2030 – and households on all continents waste more than 1 billion meals per day.

This is a huge environmental problem because when food scraps rot, they release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

As part of efforts to tackle this problem, Dr. Eckmann worked with researchers in Germany to investigate the effect of ‘point-of-sale anthropomorphism’: the attribution of human characteristics to objects for sale.

At a major food retailer in Germany called REWE, they gave loose bananas their own shelf and placed different signs in front of them: ‘happy singles’, ‘sad singles’ and ‘no emotion’.

The ‘happy singles’ sign featured a banana with a smiley face that spelled out the words: ‘We are happy single bananas who want to be bought too’.

Meanwhile, the ‘sad singles’ sign showed a sad-looking banana with the text: ‘We are sad singles and would like to be bought too.’

Finally, the “no emotion” had no face at all, but contained the words, “Here are some bananas that should also be bought.”

The experiment was conducted for twelve hours over eight days in two supermarkets of the same chain, yielding 192 hours of data collection.

In total, the researchers secretly observed the purchasing behavior of 3,810 customers for loose bananas over the course of 192 hours.

On average, the number of loose bananas sold per hour was 2.02 when the faceless and emotionless banana sign was shown.

Meanwhile, the cheerful sign led to an average of 2.13 loose bananas being sold per hour – only a slight increase in turnover.

However, the sad banana sign led to an hourly average of 3.19 loose bananas sold – an increase of 58 percent compared to the ‘no emotion’ sign.

This suggests that consumers do indeed feel sorry for inanimate objects in the supermarket – even food items that they later take home and eat.

Previous research has shown that loose bananas are responsible for the majority of both climate impact and food waste at retailers.

Current food waste prevention practices explicitly list individual bananas as a source of avoidable food waste.

Even though ultra-ripe brown and black bananas may not look as appetizing as their less ripe yellow counterparts, they are still fine to eat – as long as there is no mold or signs of rot (such as an odd odor).

However, the researchers also found that discounting the products was more effective than the sad cues at getting people to choose loose bananas.

Further online experiments showed that people were more likely to buy ‘sad’ tomatoes than ‘happy’ tomatoes.

However, real-world trials in the supermarket may be needed to confirm that the effect extends to the popular salad ingredient, as well as other foods.

Previous research has looked at the impact of anthropomorphism in increasing consumer acceptance of imperfect products, such as ‘substandard’ fruits and vegetables.

However, this is the first study to look at the effect of anthropomorphism on bananas separated from a bunch or tomatoes separated from a bunch.

The new study, published in the journal Psychology & Marketingcould help supermarkets worldwide avoid unnecessary food waste and increase sales.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare happy and sad expressions on bananas, separated from their bunch, to look at the impact on sales,” says Dr Eckmann.

‘The fate of individual bananas is very recognizable and the findings have very practical applications for boosting sales and reducing food waste in our supermarkets.

‘The research shows that it is an easy, cheap and effective intervention for retailers and policy makers.’