With 931 million tons of food being wasted worldwide each year, Carulla, a premium supermarket, branded with the promise of freshness, wanted to find a way to help. We discovered a gas called ethylene, which is in all fruits and vegetables and causes them to ripen or spoil quickly if not stored properly. With Fresh System we seek to reduce food waste, by categorizing fruits and vegetables according to their ethylene emissions, and creating associations to tell customers how to pair them to speed up or slow down the ripening process at home.

We developed a visual system to show customers easily how to store vegetables and fruits at home depending on whether they need to ripen faster or slower. To do this, we tested all the products we sold, and created a unique system that categorized each product's ethylene emissions and ideal temperatures to find the perfect way to store them. If our customers wanted the most delicious guacamole, they would have to leave their avocados near fruit or vegetable with similar ethylene emissions, say an apple, so that they would ripen wonderfully.

We developed an integral campaign to educate our customers about how to storage fruits and veggies at home. We did it first by changing the order of our fruits and vegetables section in the supermarket. In addition, we created content to show all kinds of combinations to show people how they must organize their apples, pears, grapes, lettuces, spinach, and all the system at home, depending on the ethylene level that each emits.

We divided fruit and veggies into two groups. Those which emit more ethylene and those that emit less ethylene. If someone wants more ripening, they need to join those with the sign +. On the other hand, if someone needs more conservation, they need to put together those with the sign -. We created all possible combinations to ripen quickly or conserve for more time our fruits and veggies. A simple idea to fight food waste with a simple invitation to change the way people store their food at home.

More than 35% less food waste in our Supermarket.

12% more fruit and veggie conservation at home.