Food Culture-Grocery Shopping in America vs. Australia

I'm a little more than halfway done (don't remind me) with my semester abroad experience in Australia and during my time here I've noticed a few slight differences while grocery shopping during my time here. I remember my first week while I was here and I found it extremely frustrating while grocery shopping for the first time. For your main grocery food needs you can either go to Woolworths or Coles. From past experiences I prefer shopping at Coles compared to Woolworths. I found Coles to be a lot cheaper and it has easier in store customer access. Some of the difference I've noticed between grocery stores in America vs. Australia are the organic aisle, GMO's, imported products, organic meat and produce, variety in product options, and gluten free products.

Organic Produce:

Many Americans are primed to look for organic produce (as in recent years, the US has done a fantastic job of ramping up organic produce production), so one of my first investigations in the Australian grocery store was to check out their organic produce section. Much to my surprise, I couldn’t find any organic produce in any of the largest supermarkets I visited. I was curious about the “missing” section of the grocery store, so I did some research to find out about the process and popularity of organic produce production in Australia. Based on my research, it seems that Australia has the capacity to grow a lot of organic produce, but there hasn’t been much impetus from the country itself or from the public to pursue major organic crop production. Keep in mind Australia has a lot stricter rules when it comes to regulating pesticides on produce and a lot of the food that is organic isn't labeled as organic. Since a lot of the foods here are regarded as organic they aren't labeled. Most people I've spoken to here thought it was weird that in America we have a specific aisle dedicated to just organic food and think all of our food should be held to the same quality and standards.

Genetically Modified Produce:

Another hot topic in the US is genetically modified produce. We have a variety of genetically modified produce here in the US, and it seems to be expanding more and more. One major difference I found was between genetically modified produce in the US versus in Australia. Although some genetically modified produce does exist in Australia, the total number of crops is far fewer as compared to those in the US. The other wonderful thing that I found was that Australia labels its genetically modified products, which can help consumers to better know and understand the growing practices food that they’re purchasing (this was a major thumbs up!) Instead of labeling organic produce Australians label GMO's warning consumers.

Imported Produce:

Because Australia isn’t a huge producer of many different types of produce, there has been an influx of crops imported from Asia (similar to the US importing crops from South America and other places). The major worry about importing crops from countries is that many have looser regulations with regard to pesticide use and other healthful growing practices. Like produce purchased in the US, from other countries, all should be washed extra well; and as always, aim to purchase locally grown produce from smaller farms to avoid consuming imported crops whenever possible. Although there is a fair amount of import into Australia, they do a great job of labeling products grown within the country, so they’re not too hard to find.

Organic Meat and Animal Products:

Similar to organic produce, the US has been pushing forward with the effort to produce more organic meat, eggs and dairy — something that Australia has not been quite as successful with. Like the US, Australia does have free-range meat and meat products available, but in most grocery stores one is unable to find any organic meat or eggs. If you're searching for organic meat in Australia you're best bet is going to a butcher or just getting a burger at a restaurant. The meat they serve at restaurants are of higher quality compared to the US.

Variety in Products:

I've noticed that whenever I'm going down the grocery aisle I don't notice a large amount of variety found between most products. They will have either a huge name brand, an Australian brand name, and the generic brand. The US definitely has a greater variety in products and has a lot more options to choose from. You kind of have t guess and choose which brand you like better since they're different from the brands back home.

Gluten Free Products:

I don't eat gluten free foods because I don't feel the need to exclude it from my diet due to personal reasons and I don't have a gluten intolerance. It can be nerve-wracking for a gluten-free person to travel and if you do require a gluten free diet and you're going to Australia you're in luck. I honestly think Australia has more options when it come to gluten free food and is really good when it comes to labeling if it contains gluten or not. In every single grocery store, I was able to find a variety of different gluten-free products. From cereals, to oats, granola bars and crackers — you name it they had it.