Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

The food waste/sustainable packaging connection

Sustainable packaging is emerging as a tool to mitigate food waste in the U.S. In this Q&A, GMA’s Meghan Stasz discusses the issues behind this product-package relationship.

Pw 39260 Stasz

Meghan Stasz is the director of Sustainability for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a U.S. association that promotes and represents the world’s food, beverage, and consumer products companies. She is also a distinguished co-chair for Sustainable Packaging Symposium 2012: Advancing Sustainable Supply Chains with Optimized Packaging, organized by Greener Package and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Institute for Sustainability, and scheduled for April 3-5 in Houston. One of the topics receiving considerable coverage at this year’s event will be sustainable packaging’s role in reducing food waste. In the following Q&A, Stasz provides a preview of some of the issues that will be discussed.

Packaging World:
Why has mitigating food waste become such a hot-button topic in sustainable packaging circles. Isn’t the optimization of any packaging—sustainable or otherwise—the real key to mitigating food waste? Why the focus on sustainable packaging in particular?

Meghan Stasz:
You are not the first person to ask this question. What it comes down to is this overall commitment in the CPG industry to sustainability. When we think about sustainability as a whole, we are looking to minimize waste. That’s both packaging waste and food waste. For the most part, we are doing that through innovation. So sustainable packaging that also prevents food waste is really a win all around, and that’s where the two tie in.

 

Has there been a problem with some companies moving too fast with sustainable packaging and then ending up wasting more food than they had before?

Not that I know of. Packaging engineers, as I understand, really think through the whole supply chain when they are thinking about or working on a redesign of packaging. That can be anything from new inputs to lightweighting. Packaging engineers know better than anyone that the job of packaging is to protect the product. So especially in the area of food waste, a redesign that doesn’t protect the product really doesn’t help anyone.

 

Can you describe the scale of the food waste problem in the U.S.?

It is—not to put too fine a point on it—huge. That’s not particularly eloquent, but it’s true. There are a lot of different studies out there, from the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], from universities around the U.S., and from The Department of Agriculture, and the numbers vary. So we don’t have an exact number in terms of either how much food waste is generated in the U.S. or how much is disposed of, but we know that more than 30 million tons are being sent to landfill, which is a tremendous amount. That equates to tens of billions of pounds of food being thrown away every year, and that’s just in the U.S.

The way I think about it, to put it in context, is we work closely with Feeding America, which is a network of food banks across the country. They think of 1.2 pounds of food as a meal. When we think of throwing away tens of billions of pounds every year in the U.S., that figure really helps put it all in perspective.


What are some of the causes of food waste?

They really vary. There are the obvious losses along the supply chain due to spoilage and things like that, especially with fresh or frozen foods. But there are also other causes that people don’t think of right away when they think about food waste. These can be things like mislabeled packaging or mislabeled product. A lot of times what happens with mislabeled products is when they get to the retail environment or somewhere along the supply chain, they are recognized as mislabeled, and often they are thrown away. That’s an opportunity for donation. That’s certainly what the major food banks all across the country will tell you. These food banks are really working with both the retail and the consumer products industry to help make the process easier for the decision maker to donate that food to a food bank. The food bank can then help fix the label, make sure that it’s accurate and meets all standards and requirements, and then turn that perfectly nutritious, healthy food over to their customers.


When you talk about mislabeled packaging, are you talking about things such as ingredient mislabeling?

It can be anything from ingredient mislabeling to not having something on the label that needs to be there. I am certainly not a food donation expert, but as I understand it, sometimes product comes off the line, and the label is just incorrect in some small way. Groups like Feeding America and other big networks have the capability to print out a corrected label, and they have volunteers who will put the new label right on the package. That food can then be donated rather than sent to landfill.

Pharmaceutical Innovations Report
Discover the latest breakthrough packaging technologies shaping the pharmaceutical sector. This report dives into cutting-edge innovations, from smart containers that enhance patient safety to eco-friendly materials poised to transform the industry’s sustainability practices. All from PACK EXPO. Learn how forward-thinking strategies are driving efficiency and redefining what’s possible in pharma packaging.
Learn More
Pharmaceutical Innovations Report
Break out of the ordinary: see what’s new in packaging & processing!
At PACK EXPO Las Vegas, you’ll see machinery in action and new tech from 2,300 suppliers, collaborate with experts and explore transformative solutions. Join us this September to experience a breakthrough in packaging and processing.
REGISTER NOW AND SAVE
Break out of the ordinary: see what’s new in packaging & processing!