Protective Packaging to Combat Food Waste
From Packaging Europe
According to a recent report one third of all food produced in the world ends up as waste, costing consumers globally more than £259 billion per year. In addition, around 200,000 tonnes of the 15 million tonnes of food thrown away in the UK every year comes directly from stores. Supermarkets and growers must work much more closely with their suppliers to help tackle the food waste crisis, while ensuring the consumer receives the same quality of packaging.
Innovative packaging
There are a number of ways to effectively reduce food waste through protective packaging improvements. For example, improved design of packaging helps to ensure it is fit for purpose so it adequately protects food products as it moves through the supply chain. This highlights why it is crucial packaging developers understand the distribution process and where and why waste occurs. For example, a one size fits all, multi-purpose packaging solution can help cut the amount of packaging used. By having the ability to hold multiple items, flexible solutions have many benefits including less stockholding for packers.
Damage reduction
Damages lead to increased costs for replacing goods, including manufacturing, shipping, and labour associated with processing the replacement and the claim. When a product has to be replaced and re-distributed, and the original damaged item returned and disposed of, the product’s carbon footprint multiplies. These incidents can also impact a company’s brand reputation.
Therefore, in my opinion, the best form of packaging is easy to transport, move and lift and must be protected against being dropped or crushed. A regular shaped package can be stacked without too much space between each package being wasted and provides stronger support for the product itself. This means more packages can be transported in a container of a lorry. Unusually shaped packages can lead to space being wasted and this can be costly if thousands of the same package are been transported.