Nerida Kelton
From a packaging and food waste perspective, adjusting the communication systems for date marking has been identified as the most efficient food waste reduction measure, having the greatest economic value per ton in terms of food waste reduction and the lowest cost in terms of business practices (ReFED , 2016).
By Nerida Kelton, Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Packaging.
Minimizing food waste wherever possible is everyone's responsibility as we are all able to make effective changes. So let's start with a simple exercise …
The next time you're in your fridge, I invite you to find a product with an expiration date and an expiration date. Do you throw away the groceries as they near the date or when they are past the date? What makes you automatically throw away the food? Is it judgment, common sense, or just because somewhere deep down you believe that food is no longer safe after that date?
Now ask yourself if you would change your mindset about date marking if you understood the difference between using by date and a best before date.
What is a date mark?
The date marking is designed to help consumers understand how long food can be stored before the quality deteriorates or when the product is no longer safe to eat.
What does an "use by date" mean compared to a "best before date"?
Use by date and best before date is the next step in date marking and is the responsibility of the food manufacturer.
& # 39; best before date & # 39;
At its simplest, an expiration date is for the health and safety of a consumer, and you shouldn't eat the product after that date. Articles cannot be legally sold after this date because they pose a health risk.
& # 39; Best before & # 39;
However, a best-before date does not mean that you will not be able to eat the food afterwards. It just means that after the recommended date, the quality or taste may not be "at its best". This type of date marking is determined by the manufacturer's recommendation for “optimal consumption” in order to achieve a product of the best quality. According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), which is responsible for all definitions of date marking, food may be legally sold after a best-before date and until it is no longer fit for human consumption.
“Legally, the only food that can have a different date marking is bread, which can be marked with a baked or baked date if its shelf life is less than seven days.
"Food with a shelf life of two years or longer, e.g. B. some canned goods do not have to be marked with a best-before date. This is because it is difficult to give a consumer precise guidance on how long these foods are best before. as they may retain their quality for many years and are likely to be consumed long before they spoil. "
So the next time you see a date label on your grocery, check to see if it's an expiration date or a best before date, then make informed decisions about throwing the items away. We encourage you to educate everyone in your tribe about the differences and do your part to minimize food waste.
As an industry, we need to be open and collaborative about how to improve consumer-facing marketing campaigns for date marking and how to design packaging with better communication on the packaging so that people can make informed and informed decisions before they unnecessarily waste food. Everyone has a role to play in driving change that effectively minimizes and / or prevents food waste.
AIP leads the Save Food Packaging project for the Fight Food Waste CRC
The Australian Institute for Packaging (AIP) officially announced that the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Center has been one of the first to approve its Save Food Packaging project.
The AIP is the project leader of the Save Food Packaging Criteria and Framework 1.2.1 project and has established an extensive Save Food Packaging Consortium made up of leading companies in Save Food Packaging design and innovation to ensure that the guidelines for the industry practical are they will serve. The Save Food Packaging Consortium consists of: the AIP as project leader; RMIT as a research partner; Project staff including ZipForm Packaging, Sealed Air, Multivac and APCO; Project partners such as Plantic Technologies, Result Group and Ulma Packaging; and the private branch network including AFCC, AFGC and AIFST.
The criteria and framework for storing food packaging will combine current research literature with industry knowledge of the functional properties and role of packaging in saving wasted food. While the main functions of packaging are to contain and protect the contents, as well as to provide information about the product, the role of packaging in reducing food waste needs to be better understood by food manufacturers, manufacturers, brand owners, retailers and consumers.
The relationship between packaging design and food waste needs to be discussed more openly in the industry. From the field to the fork, there are various options for food loss and waste. It has been estimated that up to 30% of the edible foods produced do not reach the fork. The role of packaging in reducing food waste is the next challenge for packaging technologists, designers, and engineers.
Using the industry networks through the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), in collaboration with the consortium, this project will create packaging design criteria and communication material for implementation in food packaging that will result in better packaging design, material selection and format selection appropriate Portioning, sealability, resealability, date marking, shelf life extension and providing the necessary information to help retailers, food service providers and consumers minimize food waste. This project will initially focus on Australia / New Zealand. Future projects will be directed to other countries through the World Packaging Organization (WPO). The global project is also led and coordinated by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) as an ANZ WPO member.
The expected effects of this project are:
- Packaging criteria for reducing food waste are known and are used by food manufacturers when designing packaging.
- The packaging criteria meet and are used by packaging and food technologists / designers / marketers / sustainability managers. They are effectively communicated to the retailer, grocery service and consumers.
- Providing education and training programs run by AIP showing how the criteria are used and incorporated into product packaging development processes.
- Food manufacturers, manufacturers, retailers and packaging companies develop innovative save food packaging and communicate this to customers and consumers.
- Recognition of companies that develop innovative and intuitive Save Food packaging through the annual Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design (PIDA) Awards and the international WorldStar Packaging Awards program of the World Packaging Organization (WPO). The AIP are the ANZ board member in the WPO.
- Regular presentation of the award-winning best practice innovations from Save Food Packaging Design throughout ANZ.
- Revision of the criteria for the Save Food Packaging Design Special Award from Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design (PIDA), if necessary.
- To help educate consumers about Save Food Packaging and the role packaging plays in minimizing food waste in Australia and New Zealand.
Thinking on the Box: Design information attributes on the packaging to influence consumer behavior when it comes to food waste
A study currently being carried out by RMIT University in Australia, the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University in Sweden and the Service Research Center at Karlstad University in Sweden shows that the date-based labeling on packaging is one of the most direct The information carrier used is by the food industry to convey the shelf life of products to consumers.
Using an activity-based lens to analyze the literature and empirical results, the researchers found that consumer interaction with dates and storage information in their food consumption activity is heavily influenced by their changing motivations, changing sociocultural contexts, and the dynamic interplay between them the use of internal sensory perceptions and external dates on the package.
The study aims to systematically understand the interplay between packaging dates and food waste behavior by consumers, and to develop design implications and interventions to better assist consumers in reducing food waste. Given the wide range of topics, this study focuses specifically on the consumer-food packaging interaction at the household level. The effects of date marking and storage-related packaging attributes on consumer purchasing behavior are excluded in the study.
A blueprint for a sustainable behavioral perspective is used as the main research perspective. Design for sustainable behavior is a relatively new field of research that aims to reduce negative environmental and social impacts of products and services by influencing user behavior in a more sustainable direction (Wever et al., 2008; Wever, 2012). Recent developments in the field seek to understand sustainability issues through both a synthetic and an analytical approach that allows us to understand factors such as the context of consumer food consumption, the transition and evolution of consumer behavior, and emerging technological Brokerage in the EU to include labeling and design of the date marking and storage information on the packaging.
The Australian Packaging Institute (AIP) will provide updated results from this study as part of its CRC project.
About Nerida Kelton MAIP
Nerida Kelton MAIP is Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Packaging and ANZ board member of the World Packaging Organization. She is also a member of the International Packaging Press Organization.
She has been in the packaging industry for more than 22 years, holds a position on the Steering Committee of the National Ministry of Environment and Energy Strategy for Food Waste and is AIP Leader for the Save Food Packaging Consortium project at the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Center. She is committed to helping the packaging industry understand the role of packaging in minimizing food waste and supporting the recognition of brands that develop innovative packaging for safe food. Nerida is also passionate about educating and training packaging professionals in the importance of sustainable and circular packaging design and recognizing best practices in this area.
Via the Australian Institute of Packaging
The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) is Australasia's premier packaging education and training professional organization helping shape the careers of generations of packaging professionals. The AIP covers Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia.
