Mai Truc Quynh Nguyen

Second Life: Vietnamese Pickling as Preservation

Abstract

Aesthetic standards and cosmetic specifications enforced within the food supply chain are a significant cause of overall food waste. It does not only affect the moment we purchase food in the supermarket but also affects us making decisions at home. In domestic spaces, most food waste decisions, especially about leftover vegetables, happen at the refrigerator. It is where people open the fridge door and assess what is left, considering throwing something out, mentally planning meals or deciding not to cook. Pickling offers one practical solution to this problem. It transforms forgotten produce past their prime into stable, nutritious and valuable products, extending shelf life and offering additional nutritional benefits. This approach not only prevents waste but also creates new uses and value for produce that might be discarded. By giving the forgotten fruits and vegetables a second chance, pickling could encourage us to see food, from something disposable to something worth caring for and preserving. In Vietnamese cuisine, pickling is more than a food preservation technique. It is a cultural practice rooted in care, resourcefulness, and respect for food. This leads to the project's central question: How can Vietnamese pickling practices be leveraged to help global audiences rescue vegetables past their prime and reduce household food waste? The approach for this project is a design intervention grounded in culturally responsive communication. It employed a practice-based methodology combining visual storytelling, illustration, semiotic analysis, and iterative prototyping. Through these methods, I explored how communication design can shift perceptions of food value and make preservation culturally resonant for contemporary audiences. The final outcomes included the Kitchen Toolkit, a series of communication artefacts designed for household use. Together, these components aimed to visualise the “second life” of vegetables and introduce low-effort preservation cues inspired by Vietnamese pickling culture. Ultimately, this research demonstrated how communication design can translate a simple, traditional practice into a meaningful tool for reducing food waste and fostering a more sustainable, food-conscious culture.

At this exploratory stage, the research question was “How can communication design integrate culturally diverse food practices to enhance understanding of food edibility and reduce household food waste?” Therefore, the purpose of this phase was to address a two-fold paradox within modern food culture: first, the aesthetic devaluation of 'ugly' produce, which leads to significant food waste; and second, the underutilization of valuable preservation techniques, such as fermentation, despite their proven benefits. This phase revealed how fear of fermentation was culturally shaped, and while the humor was effective, the zine's format limited its reach to an audience already interested in niche art or design, failing to connect with the general public uncertain about fermentation. As Vansintjan (2019) notes, lack of experience or first-hand knowledge directly contributes to anxiety. Changing this perception requires moving beyond a niche medium and passive instruction to a more accessible, publicly engaged medium with a dramatic communication strategy.

This stage aimed to explore how communication design could transform elements such as bubbles, foam, and cloudiness into characters and narratives, reframing these visual markers from symbols of risk and contamination into signs of vitality, health, and cultural heritage. This phrase revealed how fermentation itself is a visual language and suggested awareness alone is insufficient. Interventions must also support habit formation and sustained engagement. Addiationally, this phase prompted a new strategic refinement, shifting the project’s focus toward reframing the value of ugly produce while encouraging me to refine the cultural framework of my project by narrowing the focus to Vietnamese fermentation practices. Through these refinements, my research question became: “How can Vietnamese fermentation practices be leveraged to reframe the value of ‘ugly’ produce and reduce household food waste?”

Initially exploring supermarkets, this phase pivoted to the home after realizing that food waste is a domestic behavioral issue rather than a retail one. Developing the “Second Life” toolkit sought to motivate consumers at the precise moment of decision-making, yet the failure of the toolkit’s magnetic board revealed that awareness and simple nudges are insufficient to drive change. This phase highlighted that effective design for social change must move beyond priming to support sustained practices that embed frugal values into daily routines. Ultimately, this journey refined my focus toward leveraging Vietnamese pickling as a practical, reactive tool for rescuing forgotten ingredients at their most critical point of use.