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The food waste reduction battle heats up

27 April 2023

Rafael Zamora discusses how food processing packaging solutions, such as induction heat sealing, can help win the food waste battle.

According to the latest Food Waste Roadmap Report from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), achieving the shared ‘Courtauld 2030 and UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3’ targets to halve food waste by 2030 is a matter of food security and sustainable business.   

In recent years traditional food packaging choices have been brought into question, as the impact of plastics on the environment moves up the global agenda. As a result, the challenge of keeping food and drink safe from the point of production to the point of consumption, while also minimising waste, is one that food processors are now struggling to resolve.

When it comes to minimising food waste, food businesses working to reduce their own waste and that of their supply chains. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially considering that the single largest producer of food waste in the UK is the domestic household. The latest progress report from WRAP paints a picture of slow but steady progress for producers in the food waste battle.

Slow but steady
It will come as no surprise to producers, but according to WRAP, households cause 70% of the UK’s food waste, throwing away 6.6 million tonnes of food, of which 4.5 million tonnes is edible. To help deal with food waste as an industry, food businesses are setting reduction targets for their UK operations, measuring in a consistent way food surplus and waste and acting to reduce this, in partnership with suppliers. Currently,  almost one-third of large UK food businesses are implementing WRAP’s ‘Target, Measure, Act’, representing almost 60% of the overall turnover for UK food manufacture, retail, and hospitality and food service (HaFS). 

As a result there has been slow but steady progress for producers and manufacturers. Since the programme began collecting data in 2018, 34 producers and manufacturers have shared data on food waste every year and their total food waste per tonne of food handled has dropped from 2.48% in 2018 to 2.24% in 2021. Looking at the edible parts of food waste, these same 34 businesses have collectively reduced their edible food waste per tonne of food handled from 1.32% in 2018 to 0.69% in 2021; overall, that is an edible food waste per tonne of food handled reduction of 48% over the four years.

To achieve food waste reduction, a range of initiatives have been implemented. According to a progress report, these have included: ‘finding new markets for materials that may otherwise have ended up as waste, developing new products from materials that previously had no market, improving processes and staff training, and working with customers to optimise ordering and specifications’. There are many parts to the food waste puzzle, but the way food and drink is packaged, as well as how it is labelled and priced can also have a big influence on food waste reduction further down the supply chain.

Preservation potential
When it comes to the role of packaging in reducing food waste, key ways identified to make packaging part of the solution, not part of the problem, include portion size adjustments, reusable packaging and using sealing methods to preserve food for longer. When it comes to food preservation, some packaging techniques have well and truly stood the test of time. One of these is induction heat sealing. Flexible and easy-to-open by the consumer, but otherwise extremely robust, seals formed using this process ensure the integrity of packaging and can extend the shelf life of a multitude of food and beverage products. Not only is the process well known in the packaging of milk and other liquids, it is also used in a wide range of dry food consumables and for the sealing of more challenging substances, such oily and fatty foodstuffs. 

Peanut butter, for example, is notoriously difficult to package effectively. This is because its high oil content can degrade seals quickly, particularly when it is stored in glass jars. This was the problem faced by one food producer in the UK. The company’s existing peanut butter glass jar seal was failing to provide a 100% hermetic seal and subsequent leakage and customer dissatisfaction were becoming an issue. To resolve the issue an induction seal liner was combined with specialised heat sealing technology to form a completely hermetic seal throughout the product’s life.

There are many challenges facing food producers looking to reduce food waste, however there are packaging tools already in place that can help deliver significant reductions in some applications. What the Food Waste Roadmap Progress Report shows us is that with the right level of commitment and communication across the supply chain, it is possible to make a big difference to food waste – even if progress is slow and steady.  

Rafael Zamora is Director of Technology Europe at Selig Group.


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