sustainability Communication Retail Potential for Upcycled Foods: Evidence from New Zealand Francesca Goodman-Smith 1,2 , Siddharth Bhatt 3 , Robyn Moore 2 , Miranda Mirosa 1, * , Hongjun Ye 4 , Jonathan Deutsch 5 and Rajneesh Suri 4   Citation: Goodman-Smith, F.; Bhatt, S.; Moore, R.; Mirosa, M.; Ye, H.; Deutsch, J.; Suri, R. Retail Potential for Upcycled Foods: Evidence from New Zealand. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2624. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su13052624 Academic Editors: Pedro Miguel Capêlo da Silva and Jorge Dinis Câmara Freitas Received: 8 February 2021 Accepted: 23 February 2021 Published: 1 March 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Food Science, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand; f.goodmansmith@gmail.com 2 Foodstuffs NZ Ltd., Auckland 2022, New Zealand; robyn.moore@foodstuffs.co.nz 3 School of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057, USA; shb5170@psu.edu 4 LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; hy368@drexel.edu (H.Y.); surir@drexel.edu (R.S.) 5 College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; st96d633@drexel.edu * Correspondence: miranda.mirosa@otago.ac.nz Abstract: Food waste is a problem that manifests throughout the food supply chain. A promising solution that can mitigate the food waste problem across various stages of the food supply chain is upcycling food ingredients that would otherwise be wasted by converting them into new upcycled food products. This research explores perception of upcycled foods from a panel of 1001 frequent shoppers at a large grocery retailer in New Zealand. Findings from this research uncover several hitherto unexamined aspects of consumers’ evaluations of upcycled foods. These include consumers’ indications about shelf placements of upcycled foods, willingness to buy upcycled foods for people or pets other than themselves, and consumers’ preferences about information pertaining to these foods. This research advances our understanding of how consumers perceive upcycled foods and provides actionable insights to practitioners in the food industry. Keywords: food waste; upcycled foods; food marketing; food retailing; sustainability 1. Introduction Food waste is a problem that occurs at all levels of the food supply chain. A promis- ing solution that can mitigate the food waste problem across various stages of the food supply chain, at least in part, is upcycled foods. Spratt et al. [1], suggest that—“Upcycled ingredients and food products elevate food that would otherwise be wasted to higher uses and have tangible benefits to the environment and society.” Similarly, Upcycled Food Association (UFA) defines upcycled foods as those—“that use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.” In essence, upcycled foods use food ingredients that would otherwise be discarded. For instance, soup made from carrot peels or a cereal bar made from spent grain resulting from beer brewing are examples of upcycled foods [2–4]. A small but growing body of literature points to consumer acceptance of upcy- cled foods. Starting with research by Bhatt et al. [2], other researchers have found that upcycled foods may be gaining acceptance among consumers [4–7]. It is not surpris- ing that food manufacturers have started introducing upcycled foods into the market. Brands such as Regrained (regreained.com) and Planeterians (planetarians.com) sell foods made from upcycled ingredients in the United States. Upcycled foods are beginning to emerge in markets across the globe, including in New Zealand were upcycled prod- ucts from Citizen Collective (upcycled beer), and Perfect Deli Fresh (upcycled pet food) Sustainability 2021, 13, 2624. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052624 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability