Better packaging essential to food security

INNOVATIVE packages are the key in the fight against food loss and wastage. More effective barrier layers, germicidal films and freshness indicators are intended to help products to keep for longer and halt consumers' throwaway mentality. However, despite all these improvements, companies have to keep a constant eye on process efficiency and on costs.

According to the most recent "Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources" of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 54% of food is lost during production, post-harvest treatment and storage. Particularly badly affected are the poorer countries of Africa and Asia where shortcomings during harvesting and logistics destroy 6 to 11 kg of food per capita each year.  If food losses were reduced by using food more prudently, famines could be curbed.

On the other hand, wastage during processing, transport and consumption is more a problem of the industrialised nations. In Europe and North America, some 100 kg of food is thrown away per person and year although it is still fit for consumption. Demands for a change of attitude are therefore coming from the highest authorities.

Central theme of interpack 2014 

Industry has already got the message. According to a current study by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, suitable packages are capable of reducing food loss considerably. Developers are therefore working hard on new concepts for packaging machines, the related process technology and "smart" packages.

A hundred companies from the entire food value chain, from production, retailing and packaging through to logistics, are now participating in the SAVE FOOD Initiative, a joint project of the FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. Its goal is to foster dialogue between industry, research, the political sphere and civil society on the subject of food loss.

Reducing spoilage will also be the central theme at the Innovationparc Packaging at interpack 2014 in Düsseldorf. Exhibitors at this special show will be presenting their ideas on how food can be protected better from 7 to 14 May 2014. Furthermore, during the SAVE FOOD Conference at Messe Düsseldorf’s Congress Center South on 7 and 8 May, experts from politics, industry and society will be exchanging views on food loss and wastage.

The sector has a lot of work ahead of it. Farmers in Africa first have to be convinced that it is better to package their produce at source than to send it off unprotected. It is not high tech that is called for here, but education locally. Representatives of companies like Bosch, for example, therefore toured emerging and developing countries with mobile packaging machines some years back in order to demonstrate to farmers the advantages of packaged foods.

The throwaway mentality of the Western world, on the other hand, is even more difficult to combat. According to a survey by Berndt + Partner management consultants, 20 to 25 per cent of food in Europe is binned even though it is still fit for consumption. One contributory factor is the “best before date” that has to be printed on all food packages. Once it is reached, food is often thrown away. However, “best before” does not mean that food is no longer edible after this date, but merely that its colour and consistency may change. The currently still widespread big packs exacerbate the problem. The best before date is often reached before the package contents have been consumed.

Smaller, customised packages should help to solve the problem. “In our view, portioned packages for one-person households, for example, can help to stem food wastage,” says Christian Traumann, managing director of BavaAir Jordan Horizon AJ13