Last year, Foodstuffs received the worst packaging award for selling plastic-wrapped fruit and vegetables on polystyrene meat-trays.
This year, its rival, Progressive Enterprises' Countdown supermarkets, took the same award for a similar product.
The Unpackit best and worst packaging awards - run by Wanaka Wastebusters - were decided by 15,632 public votes - one-third voting for the Countdown product.
The best packaging award went to a small Auckland company called Rethink Ltd for its line of reusable cotton bags for fresh produce.
Awards spokeswoman Gina Dempster told the Otago Daily Times yesterday there were lots of nominations for worst packaging but the fruit and vegetables on meat trays was ''the thing that annoys people the most''.
''Putting fruit and vegetables on meat-trays and wrapping them in plastic is thoughtless and ridiculous,'' she said.
Ms Dempster said Foodstuffs had begun making changes after getting the award last year, with the packaging removed from 30% of its stores.
''They are definitely making progress. It's not as fast as we would like, but they are definitely getting there.''
Countdown's national communications and public affairs manager, Kate Porter, told the ODT the trays made up a ''very small proportion'' of the supermarket's overall packaging and it was also moving to introduce recyclable trays.
''We try to minimise packaging and use recyclable packaging where possible. We've made significant efforts to minimise waste, so it's unfortunate that the results of this survey have focused on a very small number of products in our produce range.''
Ms Porter said since 2006, Countdown had reduced waste to landfill by 38%, and use of recyclable plastic and cardboard had increased by 30%.
Rethink owner Lisa Cohen-Smith said in a statement it was a huge honour to win the award for best packaging. She considered herself a ''passionate environmentalist'' and believed it should not be difficult for every-day consumers to shop without polluting the environment.
