TACTIC

Both food companies and their suppliers of packaging (materials) face the great challenge of finding sustainable solutions for food packaging. Packaging has many functions: increasing shelf life, protection during transport, communication with the consumer, ease of use,... .However, it is not easy to make the right choices as a company. After all, what is the most sustainable packaging for a specific food product? To support companies in this, several tools have been developed that map the sustainability of packaging materials. However, the scientific basis and integrity on which these tools are built are often unknown. Moreover, it is often unclear what these tools can be used for and how the final outcome should be interpreted. For example, often only the environmental impact of the packaging is considered, while it is crucial to include the combination 'food and packaging' in the sustainability analysis. After all, replacing a packaging material with another, more sustainable, material should not lead to more food loss resulting in a higher environmental impact of the packaged food. In addition to choosing sustainable food packaging, it is essential to engage consumers in the sustainability story. Consumer perceptions of sustainable food packaging often do not match the actual sustainability of packaging.

Pack4Food, together with 4 spearhead clusters (VIL, Flanders' FOOD, Catalisti and SIM) and its member companies and knowledge institutes, have developed a roadmap for the food packaging of the future. Among other things, it defines four concepts to pursue higher sustainability of packaging: Ecodesign, Sort, Recycle and Improved Packaging. In addition, studies (including Fevia) have also clearly shown that it is difficult for the food and packaging sector to interact with consumers about sustainability.

Following previous projects CIRCOPACK and Multi2Recycle, Pack4Food and Flanders' FOOD want to focus even more on the sustainability of food packaging and related communication to consumers.