Sustainable packaging

Advances in food processing and food packaging play a primary role in keeping the food supply chain safe. Simply stated, packaging maintains the benefits of food processing after the process is complete, enabling foods to travel safely for long distances from their point of origin and still be wholesome at the time of consumption. However, packaging technology must balance food protection with other issues, including energy and material costs, heightened social and environmental consciousness, and strict regulations on pollutants and disposal of municipal solid waste.
Small and Medium Enterprises play a major role in transforming agricultural commodities which are highly perishable into value added products. They are however faced with a lot of challenges in maintaining the integrity of the product which is a function of product packaging.
The principal roles of food packaging are to protect food products from outside influences and damage, to contain the food, and to provide consumers with ingredient and nutritional information. Traceability, convenience, and tamper indication are additional functions of increasing packaging importance. The goal of food packaging is to contain food in a cost-effective way that satisfies industry requirements and consumer desires, maintains food safety, and minimizes environmental impact.
Package design and construction play a significant role in determining the shelf life of a food product. The right selection of packaging materials and technologies maintains product quality and freshness during distribution and storage. Materials that have traditionally been used in food packaging include glass, metals (aluminium, foils and laminates, tinplate, and tin-free steel), paper and paperboards, and plastics. Moreover, a wider variety of plastics have been introduced in both rigid and flexible forms. Today’s food packages often combine several materials to exploit each material’s functional or aesthetic properties. Food packaging is evolving in the face of climate change and consumers are starting to demand sustainable packaging from the processing. This has seen a change in the packaging materials used for packaging and has created demand for sustainable packaging.
In sustainable packaging, the food business operator must consider 4-Rs in the design and manufacture of the packaging. These include, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink. The Operator must think on how to reduce the caron footprint that may result from the packaging to help conserve water, preserve air energy. There must be shift to use renewable energy in the manufacture of the packaging materials.