Food Waste Vs. Food Packaging Issue Addressed By NSF International

In Michigan, Carol Zweep, manager of packaging, food & label compliance for NSF International, a company that tests, audits, certifies, trains and consults for the food, water, health science, sustainability and consumer product sectors, shared insight on how food waste is actually a larger problem than food packaging today. She told Packaging Digest, “In fact, ten times more resources—materials, energy, water—are used to make and distribute food than are used to make the packaging to protect it.” Nonetheless, Zweep says packaging can play a large role in helping improve the sustainability of food packaging and food waste. Zweep told Packaging Digest, “The better approach to sustainable packaging is to use bio-based materials that use renewable resources, reduce the carbon footprint and can provide an alternate end-of-life scenario through composting or recycling. An example of using a bio-based material is Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle.” Zweep will be speaking about this on Tuesday, May 16 at the Advanced Design & Manufacturing (ADM) Expo in Toronto, Canada.