While bulk food products are gaining popularity, it is important to remember that packaging has contributed to reducing food waste. How so? What are its limitations? Find the answers in this article.
Food Waste: Definition and Figures
What do we mean by food waste? It refers to all “food intended for human consumption that, at some point in the food chain, is lost, discarded, or degraded.” However, potential pre-harvest losses, as well as non-edible waste such as bones, the skin of certain fruits, etc., are not included.
According to a study conducted by ADEME in 2016, this food waste amounts to ten million tons per year in France. Looking closer, this represents 30 kg per consumer within the household. However, thanks to packaging, this waste is contained. Without it, it would reach much larger proportions.
Better Preserved Products Thanks to Packaging
Who hasn’t seen, for example, a cucumber sold on a stall, neatly wrapped in a plastic case?! And who hasn’t then asked themselves: “why?” One answer is provided by a report from December 2017 published by the National Packaging Council (CNE). Cucumbers are mostly composed of water. However, their water content decreases from the moment of harvest, so much so that after three days, they become unsellable. Thanks to the plastic film that surrounds them, their preservation is extended by two weeks.
Cans, cartons, and bottles are three other methods that allow for long-term preservation. Sterilized by high-temperature treatment, they have changed eating habits. It is now possible to shop less frequently, leaving more time for leisure activities.
Packaging Facilitates Short-Term Use of Food Items
Take the example of a liter of milk or fruit juice contained in a carton or bottle. Once opened, this packaging allows the product to be stored for three to five days without loss of nutritional or taste quality. This practice has become common and automatic in modern society. No one questions preservation anymore. We open, we close, we use at our own pace. This wonderful practicality is only possible thanks to packaging. It has revolutionized the way we consume by becoming reclosable, protective…
Products Protected by Their Packaging During Transport
With globalization and the import/export of food products, these are transported over very long distances and durations. Such logistics therefore require precautions, without which the products would arrive at their destination potentially unsellable. Here again, packaging has been the best solution.
Containers, made of cardboard or plastic for example, protect food, especially fruits and vegetables, against impacts, spoilage, etc. They have been designed with this in mind, benefiting from numerous technological advancements. Each type of food product may indeed require different preservation methods. Thus, for fruits and vegetables, micro-perforated plastic bags or selective permeability packaging will be used. For pastries, the technology of CO2 or ethanol-emitting packaging is preferred. Finally, for dairy products or meat, antibacterial effect packaging is used.
Waste Limited by Packaging Size
In addition to these different packaging techniques, their size is also essential. Depending on the products, smaller, even individual, portion packaging helps optimize the quantities purchased or unpacked, thereby limiting food waste.
However, reducing the size is not always recommended. The CNE study indeed indicates that:
- packaging has reached its minimum size if further reduction would increase waste;
- packaging size can be increased if it reduces waste.
The Limitations of Packaging in Terms of Food Waste
Food waste has decreased in recent decades thanks to packaging. However, it has not been eradicated. The benefits of packaging are indeed offset by its drawbacks.
Firstly, when batches are too large, people tend to overestimate their actual needs and therefore buy more food than they can consume. The result: they throw away products that reach their expiration date and are, sometimes, still packaged. This represents 7 kg per year per consumer.
Furthermore, packaging has led to an increase in transport distances and times. Products do not always arrive in good condition and become unsellable. They are destroyed without even reaching sales channels.
Thus, even if packaging has generally helped reduce food waste, it must be rationalized. The behaviors that arose from this advancement have sometimes been pushed to extremes that have nullified the efforts of recent years.
To learn more about Flexico’s waste management policy, visit the page Flexico, an eco-responsible player.
