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I first want to underscore the scope of the food waste and loss challenge and its environmental impact:
- Astonishingly, one-third of food produced is lost in production or wasted during the distribution or consumption stages.
- Food loss and waste account for 8% of annual global emissions
Here at Stora Enso, we're doing our part to tackle this challenge while maintaining our materials’ sustainability performance. For example, our advanced barrier materials are technically recyclable solutions that provide better protection for sensitive food products, while our efforts to lightweight paperboard reduce virgin raw material usage and associated greenhouse gas emissions. My colleague, Phillip Hanefeld, SVP Innovation and R&D, recently commented on this topic in more detail.
I believe that to maximize our contribution to improving food system sustainability, this requires prioritizing safety in our renewable materials. This means our materials:
- Are safe for the intended purpose;
- pose no risk to human health when properly used;
- and will not change or taint the packaged content.
Strict attention to food safety requires strict systems, and I’m proud that we take steps to manage this by implementing recognized quality assurance measures like Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) and food safety management systems (FSMS) certified by international standards like ISO 22000 or FSSC 22000.
This attention to safety works hand-in-hand with sustainability. The main purpose of packaging is to protect valuable packed goods, and when done right, safe fiber-based materials limit food loss by preserving freshness and protecting food from external contaminants. Clever packaging design takes over from there, which prevents waste once in the hands of consumers, for example, with resealable or easy-emptying functionality. After all, food loss and waste leads to overproducing food, and this creates avoidable emissions associated with increased production, packaging, and transportation.
Your food packaging projects can benefit from the winning combination of attention to safety, sustainability expertise, innovative renewable materials, and smart design by working transparently with a circular packaging expert like Stora Enso. To learn more about our work including our food safety systems, I invite you to download our latest guidebook, “Sustainable safety: How food-safe paperboard packaging protects consumers and reduces food waste.”
