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Food Industry Focuses on Better Packaging and Process Technology for Less Spoilage

More effective barrier layers, germicidal films and freshness indicators are intended to help products keep for longer and stop consumers’ throwaway mentality. However, despite all these improvements, companies have to keep a constant eye on process efficiency and on costs.

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Innovative packages are the key in the fight against food loss and wastage. More effective barrier layers, germicidal films and freshness indicators are intended to help products to keep for longer and stop consumers’ throwaway mentality. However, despite all these improvements, companies have to keep a constant eye on process efficiency and on costs.

Cans to combat wastage: in emerging and developing countries, a great deal of food spoils due to shipment in its unpackaged state after harvesting. Simple anti-spoilage packages like these cans could prevent this. (Photo: Messe Düsseldorf/Tillmann)

In the developing countries, one out of six children is undernourished, which amounts to an overall figure of 100 million. The United Nations (UN) estimates that undernourishment causes the deaths of 2.6 million children under five years old per year. This means that hunger is still one of the biggest scourges of humanity.

Every year, some 1.3 billion tons of food worldwide end up being thrown away, according to the report “Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources” of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Fifty-four percent of wasted food, says the report, is lost during production, post-harvest treatment and storage.

Particularly badly affected are the poorer countries of Africa and Asia, where shortcomings during harvesting and logistics destroy six to 11 kilograms of food per capita each year. Exposed to heat, fruit and milk spoil, and meat is rendered inedible by contamination with dangerous germs. On the other hand, wastage during processing, transport and consumption is more a problem of the industrialized nations. In Europe and North America, some 100 kilograms of food are thrown away per person each year, although it is still fit for consumption. Demands for a change of attitude are coming from the highest authorities. At his general audience during World Environment Day last June, Pope Francis called for an end to consumerism and the wastage of food.

Central theme of interpack 2014

Industry has already got the message. According to a current study by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, suitable packages are capable of considerably reducing food loss. Developers are working hard on new concepts for packaging machines, the related process technology and “smart” packages. A total of 100 companies from the entire food value chain, from production, retailing and packaging through to logistics, are now participating in the SAVE FOOD Initiative, a joint project of the FAO, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. Its goal is to foster dialogue between industry, research, the political sphere and civil society on the subject of food loss. Reducing spoilage also will be the central theme at the Innovationparc Packaging at the trade fair interpack PROCESSES AND PACKAGING 2014, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Exhibitors at this Innovationparc from May 8 – 14, 2014 will present their ideas on how food can be protected better. Furthermore, during the SAVE FOOD Conference at Messe Düsseldorf’s Congress Center South on May 7 and 8, 2014, experts from politics, industry and society will be exchanging views on food loss and wastage.

The sector has a lot of work ahead of it. Farmers in Africa first must be convinced it is better to package their produce at source than to send it off unprotected. It is not high tech that is called for, but local education. Representatives of companies like Bosch toured emerging and developing countries with mobile packaging machines in order to demonstrate to farmers the advantages of packaged foods.

The throwaway mentality of the Western world is even more difficult to combat. According to a survey by Berndt + Partner management consultants, 20 – 25 percent of food in Europe is thrown away, even though it is still fit for consumption. One contributing factor is the “best before date” that has to be printed on all food packages. Once it is reached, food is often discarded. However, “best before” does not mean that food is no longer edible after this date, but merely that its color and consistency may change. Widespread use of large packs worsen the problem. The best before date is often reached before the package contents have been consumed.

Smaller, customized packages should help to solve the problem. “In our view, portioned packages for one-person households, for example, can help to stem food wastage,” says Christian Traumann, Managing Director of packaging specialist MULTIVAC Sepp Haggenmüller.

Creative package solutions

Reporting continuously on a product’s state of freshness and time and temperature indicators are another approach in the battle against spoilage and waste. A useful feature is that they make any breaks in the cooling chain visible. BASF and the Swiss Freshpoint company already are producing labels containing a special pigment which are printed straight onto the package. The color changes when the contents spoil.

Research also is being conducted on active packages that interact with their contents. PET bottles are treated with oxygen absorbers like iron so that oxygen sensitive beverages such as beer and fruit juice keep for longer. Then there are films enriched with preservatives like sorbic acid that combat germ proliferation on foods. Critics claim that the additional chemicals on active packages impair the products’ natural quality. In their search for a remedy, scientists of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) in Freising, Germany, are developing antimicrobial materials based on plant extracts like rosemary. “This way, food manufacturers can go further towards meeting the consumer’s wish for natural, health-promoting products,” says IVV materials developer Sven Sängerlaub.

The downside of many food-saving packages, however, is that they are relatively expensive to produce. If, for example, a “stronger” package calls for more material, it uses up more resources. The sector is trying to offset the expenditure on “smarter” packages by economizing elsewhere along the food value chain. The manufacturers of packaging machines try to boost the efficiency of their lines by increasing the degree of automation and optimizing their processes.

MULTIVAC offers its customers innovative technologies that ensure that as little film waste is generated during production as possible, Marketing Manager Valeska Haux explains. This is achieved with the aid of advanced machine tools, such as cutting tools. The integration of handling modules in the packaging line also ensures package-by-package quality control for maximum consumer protection, says Haux.

“We boost the efficiency and hygiene of our production lines and prevent waste arising during production,” explains Mathias Dülfer, Managing Director of Weber Maschinenbau. This company specializing in high-performance cutting machines is constantly refining its range of lines. In the latest machines, innovative blade technologies, intuitive operating concepts and an open design ensure ease of operation, good accessibility and inspectability, and simple cleaning. “All this helps to make production even more efficient, more reliable and hence more sustainable,” says Dülfer.

Packaging foods more securely and with higher throughput is also the aim of Spanish machine manufacturer ULMA Packaging. The company covers all packaging technologies from tubular bag packages to deep-drawing machines. At interpack 2014, the company will show new deep-drawing systems for skin packages, among other products. The main function of this kind of packaging is to extend shelf life while also preventing liquid loss due to evaporation. This slows down growth.

ULMA also has developed a new control for all machine models with user-friendly software. The newly developed control promises “a huge boost to productivity on all systems,” the company claims.

The innovations from the manufacturers demonstrate that a whole array of packaging strategies for preventing food loss is already available — and that they can be realized on the industrial scale at acceptable cost thanks to ongoing improvements in the efficiency of the production technology. At interpack 2014, food manufacturers will have the possibility to see all of it for themselves.

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