Page 18 - Food & Drink Magazine March 2021

BY ASSOCIATION
✷ FINDINGS
Save Food Packaging Design Project
Save food packaging is integral to achieving Australia’s goal to halve food waste by 2030. Australian Institute of Packaging executive director Nerida Kelton explains the Save Food Packaging Design Project and findings from its first research report, produced in collaboration with RMIT.
STAKEHOLDERS’ FEEDBACK
1Considerations of SFP are currently occurring primarily at the beginning of the new
product packaging development (NPPD) process.
2Shelf life of a product is the first and most important consideration within NPPDs.
3Consumer food waste data is relatively unknown within the industry, so instead it relies heavily on consumer feedback and complaints for packaging design improvements.
4Consumer demands and trends change quickly, which makes it difficult for the food industry to design appropriate products.
5There is a need for enhanced consumer education on food waste versus packaging waste.
6Organisations were divided about marketing SFP to consumers. While some said it was unnecessary, others saw it as essential. Further research on the impact of marketing SFP to consumers may be required.
7Interviewees reported trade-offs between achieving the 2030 Food Waste Targets or meeting the 2025 National Packaging Targets.
8Case studies and training modules for roles and sectors were identified as the most appropriate form of SFP design criteria to be implemented into organisations. These are being developed by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP).
AUSTRALIA needs to build a sustainable food system. It must deliver food security; take into consideration social, economic and environmental impacts; and stop food waste from heading to landfill.
Food waste in Australia has become a $20 billion problem.
A staggering 34 per cent (2.5 million tonnes) of all food wasted is in households, followed by 31 per cent in primary production.
Then consider the environmental impacts that sit behind food production including water, land, energy, labour, capital, and that far too much food waste is heading to landfill creating greenhouse gas emissions.
This is where innovative save food packaging (SFP)
design has
an important role to play within the food system.
WHAT IS SFP
SFP uses innovative and intuitive design features that can contain and protect, preserve, extend shelf life, easily open and reseal, provide consumer convenience, and portion control, all the while meeting global sustainable packaging targets.
To embed SFP design into businesses we first need to understand:
• whether manufacturers
consider food waste and loss; • how packaging technologists
are designing food packaging; • if marketers are ensuring that
on-pack communication provides the best messaging to consumers; and
• what the barriers are to implement SFP strategies.
For the Save Food Packaging Design Project, part of the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) and RMIT have released two stakeholder industry insight reports to set a baseline for current design practice and enable a path forward for areas of improvement.
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
The two reports: Industry Insights Report: Stakeholder Online Survey of Product-Packaging Design Processes and Industry Insights Report: Stakeholder Interviews of Product-Packaging Design Processes, reflect the current food and packaging industries’ perceptions and practices of food waste and SFP.
The second report reviews the expert knowledge and perceptions from stakeholder interviews, which represented a range of organisations in the food industry, evaluating current SFP design and system implementation techniques. See the column (left) for what the interviews revealed.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1Clear definitions of food loss and waste
There are still varying
interpretations of what constitutes food loss and waste.
18 | Food&Drink business | March 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au