Australia - More Choice Than Ever Before

THE number of items on Australian supermarket shelves has more than doubled in the past 20 years.

Research from retail giant Woolworths has revealed the biggest increases in products are in the frozen and refrigerated sections, with many items now for sale virtually unrecognisable two decades ago.

Popular "innovations" such as canned chicken, bottled water, diet supplements, gourmet chips, energy drinks and simmer sauces have taken over shelves, pushing aside simpler items such as plain potato crisps, frozen chickens, dried herbs and powdered milk.

As well as entirely new categories of food - including ready meals, side dishes and long-life microwavable packs - traditional lines have been expanded to include sometimes hundreds of items.

According to the research, released to The Sunday Telegraph, some of the fastest-growing lines include chilled juices, muesli bars, organic goods, flavoured coffee, dips, cooking oil, cheese and ethnic foods such as Chinese, halal and kosher.

"The key drivers of change are all interlinked and pretty much boil down to packaging technology and new product innovations, customers' need for more convenience to suit busier and different lifestyles and ethnic diversity and travel broadening our food horizons," Woolworths spokeswoman Clare Buchanan said.

"Overall we've probably doubled the amount of products ranged in the last 20 years and now have far more refrigeration and freezer space. We've also increased the floorspace for fresh food by 50 per cent in the last 10 years alone."

Some of the more curious developments are the phasing out of traditionally popular goods including many products formerly sold in cans. Many - including juice, soups and baby food - have been replaced by goods in plastic bottles, jars or Tetra Pak.

And some simple things, including milk, have become increasingly "gourmet".

"Milk used to just be plain, ordinary milk," Ms Buchanan said. "Now there are scores of varieties with extra vitamins, minerals and so on. Likewise, we used to sell a lot of powdered milk. Now it has disappeared, replaced by long-life variants.

"Baby food, too, just used to be a few basic jars. Now it's nearly half an aisle and increasingly organic."

Plain old lettuce and tomato have also experienced a revolution in the past 20 years.

"We used to only sell one or two varieties of tomato and lettuce. Now we have about 15 varieties of each," she said.

Ms Buchanan said there had been an exponential growth in the range of oils on sale: "It used to only be vegetable oil; now, there are hundreds of flavours and varieties".

She said one of the other major areas of change in supermarkets was the rise of disposable nappies. "We didn't even used to sell them - now they take up a lot of space as everyone uses disposables," she said.

Mother-of-one Daniela Lelicova, shopping this week at the Woolworths Leichhardt store, said the range of items on supermarket shelves seemed to be ever increasing.

"I like to find new things and try new things, especially things I have seen advertised on the television," she said.