Safe Food: Packaging as weapon against food loss and food waste
In a study from 2013 we at B+P Creality investigated whether and how the product packaging can contribute to control food waste. The current discussions about this topic show that we were right about the issue. Today the results of our study may be even more relevant than 4 years ago but they are still up-to-the-minute.
Every year 1.3 billion tons of food are thrown away, i.e. one third of all produced products get lost this way – together with all resources used for the product’s production, elaboration, transport and storage.
Vegetables and fruits (44%) take the first place, followed by pastries and pasta (21%). Main food waste is caused by the consumer, e.g. the consumer throws 25% of grain products away!
Today there are many concepts which should counteract the waste, i.e. reduced prices for goods that have exceeded the shelf live but also new commercial forms like “SirPlus” in Berlin. Groceries which cannot be sold anymore in the supermarkets due to various reasons are sold at a reduced price.
In 2013, we already analyzed the topic of Food Waste or Safe Food strongly focusing on the consumers. In the first step, we asked them which products are more likely to be thrown away as they were not consumed. The TOP 5 of this groceries were: green salad, regular quark, pre-packed cold cuts, pre-packed bread and pretzel sticks.
In the second step we developed approaches for innovative safe food packaging which were then evaluated by consumers. Beforehand: The packaging is a weapon against food loss! But there are hurdles – both producers and consumers.
Consumer benefit for your packaging?