Designed to
protect
Food safety is the main scope of food packaging.
Most food products deteriorate in quality due to mass transfer phenomena such as moisture absorption, oxygen invasion, flavour loss or undesirable odour absorption.
Among all the requirements that food packaging have to meet, the most important is the product protection.
To achieve preservation and safe delivery until the food is consumed, primary packaging must be designed and developed to prevent or at least delay chemical, microbiological and physical deteriorations of the content.
Food waste consequences
An action that provokes a chain reaction.
Food supply chains are complex networks. Around 88 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU every year, equivalent to 173 kilos per person. From farms to processing and production, to shops, restaurants and at consumer houses. This is attributed 53% to families and 19% to transformation processes. Food waste not only means the loss of quality and often scarce resources such as water, soil, and energy, but also the impact this has on climate change.
According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for every kilo of food produced, 4.5 kilos of CO2 are released into the atmosphere.
The role of
plastic packaging
Removing it, is not the answer.
Plastic packaging fits perfectly into the food supply chain because it supports the safe distribution over long distances, minimizing food waste by keeping food fresh for longer. Numbers make it clear: reducing wastage is crucial for environmental protection, as well as food security.
Lighter and flexible than alternatives such as glass or aluminium, plastic packaging optimizes the size of the packaging by containing transport costs and reducing the resulting carbon emissions.
Removing plastic from food packaging is not the answer, but food sellers need to think of ways to reduce and reuse it where possible.
Vacuum packaging
Simple, effective and safe.
Vacuum packing is a method of packaging, manual or automatic, that removes air from the package before sealing. By doing this, the presence of atmospheric oxygen is reduced, therefore limiting the growth of aerobic bacteria or fungi and preventing the evaporation of volatile compounds.
It is widely used for the protection of most deteriorating food products such as raw and processed meat, fish, vegetables as well as dry foods, by producers, retailers, restaurants as well as final consumers due to its simplicity, low upfront investment cost and process effectiveness.
