Hey New Zealand, what are you having for Sunday dinner? File photo / Nasshon Zalk
Hey New Zealand, what are you having for Sunday dinner? File photo / Nasshon Zalk
EDITORIAL
Hands up all those who have been having home-cooked meals? Okay, put your hands down. All you others, what have you been eating?
Surely, everyone has noticed by now the essentials for a Kiwi kitchen of a generation ago are the items being snapped up faster than store workerscan restock the shelves.
Flour has been purchased in much higher volumes than normal, Foodstuffs head of corporate affairs Antoinette Laird confirmed to the Herald this week. "Baking products, in general, have been snapped up by consumers as they prepared for four weeks of lockdown," she said.
Fast-food joints have been shut down, after overseas experience showed eatery kitchens were potential virus spreaders.
Sure, in the three weeks to March 15, sales of toilet paper at Coundown stores increased 87 per cent compared to the same time last year. And sales of processed foods such as canned and dried vegetables were up 62 per cent.
But home cooks, seemingly keen to keep busy and fed during the lockdown, have pushed demand for flour up 500 per cent for one producer.
Thankfully, the classic Kiwi best-seller, the Edmonds Cookery Book, is available online to make a comeback without having to queue (spaced carefully) for it.
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Fruit, vegetable and herb seedlings are also flying off the shelves.
Only four months ago, the Herald on Sunday again presented more compelling evidence that fast, convenience food was wreaking havoc with this nation's health.
The online Bayer Food Focus Survey asked 1346 people - chosen to reflect New Zealand's gender, age, area and ethnic mix - about their food pruchasing, preparation and consuming choices.
Most survey respondents said they knew how to prepare a healthy meal but a third said they were too busy. The younger they were, the busier they said they were.
In an editorial, we wondered what it would take to get Kiwis to eat better. We didn't expect an answer quite so fast.
