Sweden’s Oldest Spice
Fighting food waste
Background:
Food waste generates 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.
A major contributing factor is that many people believe food past its 'best before' date shouldn't be eaten.
One in six Swedes throws away pantry food simply because it has passed its best-before date. And the ignorance is growing. The number of Swedes who believe food is not supposed to be eaten after the expiry date has risen from 27 to 41 percent over the past two years.
But food is often edible months or even years after its best before date has passed. Matsmart-Motatos, an online food store on a mission to save food from going to waste, saw the need to increase knowledge about best-before labeling.
Solution:
Matsmart-Motatos arranged the contest ’Sweden’s Oldest Spice’ – an initiative encouraging people to submit pictures of the oldest spice jars they could find in their cupboards. The contest was launched in a news segment on Channel 4. The response was astounding. More than 800 pictures of old spice jars were submitted from all over the country. A hundred of them were so old that they didn’t even have a best-before date. Matsmart-Motatos commissioned food historian Richard Tellström to research the oldest entries and find a winner – a 110-year-old pepper mix from Träslövsläge in its unopened original packaging.
The golden oldie, and facts about ‘best before’ labels, were eagerly devoured by the news.
To demonstrate that food can often be eaten well beyond its expiry date, Matsmart-Motatos partnered with star chef Fredrik Eriksson, who put a dish made with the 100-year-old spice on the menu at his restaurant Långbro Värdshus.
We also organized the Oldest Spice contests in Denmark and Finland during the summer of 2024.
Links
The case video
Matsmart’s Instagram post with some of the entries
