With the cost of living crisis biting for consumers and the rise in energy costs impacting on everyone, the fact that waste is unsustainable – in the economic and environmental senses of the word – is just one of the drivers for practical packaging solutions for food.
A recent study shows that the EU now wastes more food than it imports, with around €150billion worth of food wasted each year. All waste is heartbreaking, but food waste is one of the most pointless and depressing, with the fact that around 829 million people go to bed hungry each night while all that food is being thrown away...and produced and paid for at a time when many can least afford it. It is a privilege to be able to throw away food - but we must not waste resources.
One way in which food waste can be tackled is by ensuring suitable packaging is used that compliments how consumers use the product. While we’re all being encouraged to take lunch to work instead of shelling out on takeaways, or making sure we effectively use the produce we’ve bought instead of chucking out half-eaten packets of food from the fridge because it dried out and lost its appeal, it’s a false economy if we don’t fully use what we’ve paid for.
Vikorija Griziene, general manager at RETAL Films, explains how the company has successfully created resealable packaging that’s ideal for sliced cheeses and deli meats, “Developing resealable packaging is a huge technical challenge because it is important that the packaging offers the necessary barrier properties. Sliced cheese needs the right environment inside the packaging; no moisture but not too dry either, so the product has a good shelf life, even after it’s been opened and closed a number of times. We’ve conducted a wide range of technical trials to be sure that we can offer a range of top lidding and bottom film solutions that are resealable and recyclable.”
Read online at Dairy Industries (page 37)
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