On Sunday 29 September 2024, the International Day of Awareness of food loss and waste (IDAFLW) will be celebrated. It’s the fifth year of the international campaign to raise awareness, following the 74th United Nations General Assembly, which recognised the role that food production plays in reducing poverty and hunger.
A packaging perspective
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste calls for more sustainable approaches to both food loss – from farm production to distribution – and food waste – where food is thrown away in the shop or at home. The approach to tackling this problem requires a fundamental change in attitude as well as systematic solutions at private, public and governmental levels. From a transactional perspective, from post-harvest to and before retail, it is estimated that around 13 per cent of all food is lost in the supply chain¹ (FAO 2022).
If we focus on the approaches that the private sector can take, whether it is improving harvesting, handling, storage or transport, there are easy wins that food and beverage companies can adopt to make these changes. Each incremental change not only prevents waste, it can support food security and nutrition, and is the right direction to take to reduce food waste by 2030 in line with the United Nations’ targets.
We all need to recognise that food production has a major impact not only on food security and nutrition, but also on sustainability and climate change. The question is, how can food companies help to prevent this food waste from leaving the confines of their factories and plants?
Reasons for food loss in packaging
Consider, for example, the role that processing and packaging play in reducing food loss within the food supply chain. Losses occur in a number of ways, including rejection or recall of food due to:
- incorrect weight or volume
- incorrect date, marking or labelling
- data processing errors
- excessive retail promotions
- contamination and foreign objects
- date code errors
- damaged packaging
- undeclared allergens and ingredients
What happens here is that food is inevitably lost once it is detected by an operator, or perhaps at a later stage at the distribution or retail level, where a number of batches of product have been compromised for any of the above reasons.
Efficiency equals waste reduction
From a packaging perspective, there are ways to prevent food loss and waste (FLW). Packaging line automation has been around for decades, but much of the verification on packaging lines is still done by line operators. AutoCoding Systems solutions can detect if products have been mislabelled, packaged in the wrong package or with the wrong label sleeve.
When connected to line devices such as checkweighers, metal detectors and x-ray machines, it can detect if there is an incorrect weight or physical contamination. It ensures that errors are caught at the source, thus preventing further food waste in the primary and secondary packaging stages. Our vision inspection systems can detect whether labels have been printed in the correct areas, check for foreign objects or compromised packaging structures.
These small line control implementations can make a big difference over time. Not only in reducing overall error and minimising risk to the manufacturer for the reasons above, but also in the overall efficiency and traceability of the inspection process and the loss of food volume.
Sustainable solutions
We may be discouraged by the inherent attitude of a factory to discard rather than reuse or prevent as a way of ensuring food safety and quality. However, there are also cultural and economic factors at play, with the perception that waste minimisation does not add value. Given the growing environmental, social and governance (ESG) pressures, perhaps an argument can be made against this value. After all, it ensures that waste and the associated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to produce the food is minimised at every stage, and that effective handling practices are in place for greater sustainability.
Effective working practices do indeed work well when there is commitment to them. Our solutions that support such sustainable practices are part of our JBT Group’s commitment to ‘reduce food and packaging waste’. It’s an area that supports one of the strategic pillars of our ESG framework, which commits us to working on solutions ‘That Fortify the Future of Food’.
Working together to find ways to minimise waste
Food date labelling practices and in-store promotions are constantly evolving and can be complex at times. It will take time for technology to address these complexities and for manufacturers to be educated on the need to create sustainable packaging, both from an environmental perspective and one that is receptive to automation to reduce risk. At AutoCoding Systems Ltd, we work closely with our customers to ensure that these complexities are managed in real factory scenarios. We advise on the best approach to minimise waste and errors on the packaging line in the most cost effective way.
There is also a lack of global standardisation in date coding practices, which means that there is still a risk of mislabelling, both in manufacturing and in consumer interpretation of date labels. This creates a FLW that will need to be addressed over time. According to the WHO, 733 million² people around the world faced hunger challenges in 2023. It’s important to continue to raise awareness of FLW in different supply chain scenarios to maintain the momentum of this global issue and creating steps towards FLW.
Stop Food Loss and Waste! For the people. For the planet
If you have any questions about food loss or how to implement measures within the packaging line process, please email [email protected]
Source:
- UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), Nairobi, 2024, ‘Food waste Index Report 2024, Think Eat Save, Traking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste’, UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). Food Waste Index Report 2024. Think Eat Save: Tracking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste (unep.org)
- Rio de Janeiro, 24 July 2024, ‘Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen: UN report’, Joint News Release, World Health Organization Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen: UN report (who.int)