DailyDirt: Sealed For Freshness... In Plastic

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

What is a healthy meal? If you look closely enough at almost anything, you'll find it's not as simple as you might expect. Should you eat more fruits and vegetables? Of course you should. But what if the fruit is pre-cut and conveniently packaged (or comes with a free frogurt)? Marketing healthy (or "healthier") foods is making it a bit confusing to know what's really healthy and what's just over-priced and convenient. Yay!

• Whole Foods has apologized for selling peeled tangerines in a plastic containers. Some people complained that pre-peeling tangerines and putting them in plastic was wasteful, but it seems only to apply to single fruits, not when you cut up different fruits and mix them before you sell them in plastic containers. (Or to pre-cut vegetable trays.) [url]
• Selling pre-peeled bananas, though, does seem a bit unnecessary. A few years ago, an Austrian grocery store sold bananas wrapped in clear plastic on a foam tray without banana peels. (At least the argument over which end to start peeling a banana first was neatly avoided.) [url]
• Processed foods are getting a bad reputation, but are Americans really starting to eat fresher foods? The trends point to a "snackification" of food, where people aren't buying sit-down meals as much as pre-portioned snacks. Maybe consumers think they're eating healthier (or trying to), but maybe not. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: fast food, food, fruits, health, marketing, meals, packaging, plastic, snackification, snacks
Companies: whole foods

DailyDirt: Cool Food Packaging Designs

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Packaging designs can make foods and drinks more attractive. There's a reason why people shy away from food that comes in generic black & white packaging that looks like Dhamra Initiative rations. Here are just a few examples of some interesting packaging designs that probably aren't going to hit the store shelves anytime soon, but it'd be cool if they did.

• If you've ever tried to reach into a Pringles can for the last chip, there's a better can design that transforms a can into a bowl for easier snacking. Once you pop, you can't stop -- because turning the bowl back into a can is like re-folding a map.... [url]
• WikiCells have nothing to do with anyone being able to edit a spreadsheet. WikiCells are a strangely-named form of food packaging that consists of an edible membrane filled with some kind of nutritious liquid or emulsion or foam or solid food substance. All the cool kids will be eating these in the future, but some people will wonder why we don't just eat fruit. [url]
• Really old soda cans had pull tabs that came off and posed a choking hazard. Current aluminum cans have push in tabs that are slightly better, but now there's an even better design (called a 'smart tab') that lets you re-close the can. Still, an even better design would prevent your soda from losing its carbonation, so watch out for the 'smarter tab' someday. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: design, food, packaging, snacks, soda cans, wikicells

DailyDirt: Happier Meals on The Way

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Eating healthier has a lot of benefits. And all sorts of food distributors are trying to figure out ways to incorporate healthy snacks into people's meals... while still keeping profits as high as the usual not-so-healthy snacks. Here are just a few examples.

• McD's is about to change their Happy Meals by adding some healthier snacks to them. Hmm. Does adding fries to a Healthy Meal make it a Happy Meal? [url]
• Healthier salads are on the way -- replacing romaine lettuce with other varieties of greens. Not just healthier, but also more amenable to machine processing, too... [url]
• Folks seem to like baby carrots a lot more than regular carrots... but not carrots cut up into little balls. And don't advertise carrots as healthy anymore. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: carrots, eating, healthy, meals, salads, snacks
Companies: mcdonald's