Packaging systems for reduced food waste

Purpose and goal

The objective of the Stage 1 project was to build a consortium to develop the idea and probe the market potential for innovative packaging solutions to reduce food waste. - A consortium of stakeholders from across the packaging value chain for three different food categories was created, partly by carrying out two interdisciplinary workshops. - The concept was developed and refined with a Stage 2 project in mind. - The market potential was analysed and described in a report ´Packaging can reduce food waste - a market potential´ (Innventia Report No. 583, 2014, 31 pp and one appendix).

Results and expected effects

The expected impact of the project is that new packaging solutions with a clear food waste profile exist on the market by 2020. That these packaging solutions lead to new business opportunities, increased competitiveness of the Swedish packaging industry, increased demand for the Swedish forest industry and contribute to solving the global problem of food waste is now well anchored. The consortium shares a common vision of reduced food waste and will develop a communication plan to both communicate effectively with consumers and increase foreseen benefits for each actor.

Approach and implementation

Within the project we have conducted regular project meetings (Innventia along with KaU and if necessary other participating companies), some thirty meetings with interesting actors for expanding the consortium as well as two well-attended workshops. Through these activities, we have achieved the project goals and also created an open dialogue between industry (material and packaging manufacturers, brand owners and commercial companies), public bodies and authorities, and research and innovation actors.