8 - Environmental assessment of food packaging and advanced methods for choosing the correct materials

Abstract

Publisher Summary The consumers increasingly demand food that is healthy, convenient, and quick to prepare; thus, the selection of appropriate packaging materials to ensure that the food's nutritional value and shelf-life are maintained is becoming complex. Not only does the packaging development team need to ensure compatibility between product and packaging materials, required shelf-life, production line efficiency and cost, but they also need to consider the environmental impacts associated with the selection, use, and post-consumer waste management of the discarded packaging system. The approaches range from bans or taxes on particular materials through to voluntary programs. Therefore, the decisions about which packaging materials to select would be influenced to some degree by the policy approach in a particular country. In response to the increasing concerns and the needs of industry to balance the functional requirements of packaging materials with the environmental burdens of their production, use and post-consumer waste management, several international collaborative partnerships are leading the way in the debate on what constitutes sustainable packaging.