Fighting against food waste through better packaging
Packaging is the activity of temporarily integrating an external function and a product to enable the proper use of the product. When talking food, one often speaks of ‘consumption’ instead of ‘use’. The aim of the project is to facilitate and also stimulate the fight against food waste through better packaging.
Three key areas have been identified where better packaging can make a difference: over-consumption (resulting in obesity and adverse health effects like diabetes), dysfunctional consumption ('mal-nutrition': sufficient calorific intake as such, but not with the right vitamins) and under-nutrition (the lacking of sufficient food due to preventable losses in the supply chain).
Three packaging functions are the most relevant: the pack dimensions (related to portion size for example), the on-pack communication (informing the consumer and actually also enabling feedback by the consumer to the food supplier/distributor) and new or optimized packaging and logistics technologies (for example enabling better protection in humid or high-temperature environments).
Watch the video impression of the NVC Inspiration meeting Fighting food waste with novel packaging (held 22 April 2016 at the Auditorium of the NVC association office in Gouda, The Netherlands).
Download the presentation of the NVC Workshop Fighting food waste (held on 22 March 2017 at the 13th ENG Packaging Design & Innovation Summit in Rome, Italy).
A review article was published on 2 March 2018 in the NVC Special 2018 (chapter 2). Read the digital version of the NVC Special 2018 online here.
Ask us via info@nvc.nl to send you the presentations of the international conference Fighting food waste together via how to open the potential of better packaging (held on Thursday 22 March 2018 during the Anuga Foodtec in Cologne, Germany).
Preparations for a follow-up conference at the CIBUSTEC 2019 (to be held from 22-25 October 2019 in Parma, Italy) have now begun. Contact Michael Nieuwesteeg via m.nieuwesteeg@nvc.nl or phone + 31-182-512411 if you wold like to make a contribution.
Learn more about food packaging in the Live Online NVC E-Course Food Packaging (Live Online Learning means: worldwide access, no travel costs and outstanding learning outcomes thanks to live teachers in the interactive online NVC classroom).