Unveiling Potential in Food Packaging to Minimize Waste: An Examined Chance?
Revamped and Restructured Article:
Switching Hands: Tackling Food Waste through Innovative Packaging Techniques and City Involvement
Let's face it, the global food waste crisis is a whopper. In 2019 alone, an astounding 931 million tonnes of edible food was squandered, amounting to approximately seven times the weight of all the 40-tonne trucks circulating our planet.
Beyond the lost eats, this food waste equates to staggering waste of natural resources, energy, and labor. Adding insult to injury, the continued prevalence of hungry and malnourished individuals around the world accentuates the moral and ethical implications of the food waste catastrophe.
The time for a transformative shake-up in our approach to food waste could not be more evident. With an estimated 570 million tonnes of waste in 2019 emanating from households—with urban centers taking the brunt—cities, and the people who reside in them, will serve as vital centers for change.
Many folks living it up in urban jungles purchase more food than needed, struggle to discern when food has spoiled, and frequent cities ill-equipped with adequate composting or waste facilities. However, the underlying source of the issue—packaging—remains largely untouched.
Unraveling the Packaging Dilemma
Over the last century, food packaging has skyrocketed to play a crucial role that goes beyond merely housing food items. Modern packaging now fulfills a multitude of functions, including protecting food, facilitating handling, and informing consumers about contents. Yet, with regard to waste and its environmental impact, the benefits are not always worth the cost.
An estimated half of all household food waste could be attributed to packaging functions alone, owing to difficulties in emptying products, inability to reseal packaging, and unfairly sized packaging.
Moreover, the majority of food packaging is single-use, and the environmental impacts of this—particularly in the case of plastic packaging—are dire.
Roughly 32 percent of the 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging produced annually ends up in our oceans, translating to the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic poured into the sea every sixty seconds. On current projections, this awkward dance between fish and plastic will culminate in more plastic than fish in the world's oceans by 2050.
Biodegradable alternatives once hailed as champions of the sustainability dream are now questioned, as many of these so-called environmentally friendly products come with their own environmental and sustainability concerns. Currently capturing just a one percent share of the global plastics market, these eco-friendly alternatives have a long way to go before they can mathematically compete with the giants.
A Good Catch or a Case of Food Confusion?
If you thought the materials were the core problem, think again: labeling is one of the biggest culprits behind packaging-related food waste.
Despite most consumers relying on date labels as a guiding pharos to avoid foodborne illness, in the US, food date labels hold little weight when it comes to food safety. For example, as long as the can is in good condition, tinned products can be consumed for years, and while it may lose a bit of flavor, food that has been frozen for an extended period is perfectly safe to consume.
Manufacturers use a variety of label-related phrases, such as "Best Before", "Best By", and "Use By", to influence consumers' decisions on when to consume a product when it is at its peak quality—a determination often unrooted in science.
To make matters more confusing, the specific language used varies across brands, products, and jurisdictions. In the United States, there is currently an assortment of approximately 50 different types of date labels—all unregulated.
Consequently, it's no wonder that consumers continue to prematurely discard enormous amounts of food due to a misunderstanding or illegibility of labels.
In Europe, where labeling is standardized, consumers still struggle with the distinction between "best before" (food quality) and "use by" (food safety) dates. In 2018, it was estimated that 10 percent of the 88 million tonnes of food waste produced each year was linked to misinterpretation and label legibility issues.
About to Wrap It Up? Not So Fast...
Amid all the gloom and doom, there are beams of hope on the horizon. For instance, the EU has earmarked date labeling as an area in need of reform as part of its Farm to Fork strategy.
In the United Kingdom, supermarket giant Waitrose has vowed to remove best-before dates from nearly 500 fresh food products, encouraging customers to base their own assessments of food freshness. However, as tempting as it may be to overlook the fact that knowing when fruit or vegetables are ripe isn't always easy, this move seems to be a bit shortsighted.
Another shining example of progress is the German startup SIRPLUS, which has demonstrated that consumers are willing to pay for food that would otherwise be discarded. SIRPLUS sells food nearing or past its expiration date or visually unattractive produce (such as misshapen fruit) from farmers, wholesalers, retailers, and others. With its admirable mission to allow "everyone to simply be part of the solution and do good with their daily consumption," SIRPLUS claims to have saved a whopping 2,500 tonnes of food between 2017 and 2022.
Yet, the elephant in the room remains: the packaging itself. Alas, what lies on store shelves does not reflect the developments in the packaging industry.
In the past decade, there have been significant advancements in intelligent or smart packaging technology. From RFID tags that monitor food freshness over time to digital 'noses' that detect spoilage, and chemical additives to extend a product's lifespan, the pipeline is overflowing with potential solutions. In addition, advances in organic, genuinely biodegradable polymers are underway.
However, the uptake amongst suppliers and retailers has been sluggish, with poor communication and collaboration between stakeholders hindering progress and reinforcing the status quo.
There are attempts underway to change this, such as GLOPACK, a European Union research initiative designed to tackle the entire packaging problem. The project is diligently working on the development of biodegradable packaging materials derived from agro-food residues, new food preservation methods, and solutions for spoilage detection. Furthermore, GLOPACK is developing a decision-making tool to match suppliers and retailers with the best sustainable packaging solutions for their needs.
The Closing Act
A deluge of hopelessness can wash over us when confronting the many challenges humanity faces today. Even recycling—something many of us engage in, hoping it makes a difference in reducing packaging waste—has proven to be less effective than initially thought and, in some cases, deliberately misrepresented to perpetuate plastic production.
But there lies a place for optimism alongside cynicism. Citizens of bustling locales can play a pivotal role in the shift toward reducing food waste through the adoption of innovative packaging solutions. While national governments and international organizations have their roles to play, cities hold the keys to influencing real change where these bodies fall short.
Let's roll up our sleeves: creating policy frameworks to support businesses like SIRPLUS, encouraging supermarkets to rethink their food dating practices, and backing the development of sustainable packaging requirements for products procured for municipal organizations and events are just a few of the steps every city can take to create a more sustainable reality for us all.
It’s no secret that a city is only as good as its citizens. It's up to us, as individuals, to demand change at the grassroots level—from the businesses we support, the nonprofits we work with, and the cities we call home.
- In the realm of education and self-development, understanding the science behind food spoilage and labeling can empow individuals to make informed decisions about food consumption, reducing environmental-science related waste.
- As cities look to tackle food waste through innovative packaging techniques and urban involvement, technology can play a crucial role by developing intelligent or smart packaging, such as RFID tags and digital 'noses', to monitor food freshness and prevent excess waste.
- To foster a lifestyle more conscious of food waste and the environment, comprehensive education about climate-change issues, including the impacts of food packaging waste, is essential to raise public awareness and instigate change at the individual and city levels.
