In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) jointly announced an ambitious national goal to reduce food loss and waste by 50% by 2030. In 2021, EPA directly aligned the food waste and loss goal with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3, which states, “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.”
In December 2023, EPA, USDA, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested public comments on the “Draft Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics.” During the public comment period, EPA, USDA, and FDA encouraged the public to consider the following key questions when reviewing and commenting on the draft strategy:
- What actions could help the U.S. meet its goals that are not reflected in the draft?
- What type of research should be funded?
- What actions would result in more equitable outcomes for underserved and/or food insecure communities?
A few months later, in June 2024, the White House, along with EPA, USDA, and FDA, released their final “National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics.” This strategy is part of a series of strategies for building a more circular economy for all. This strategy also will aid the next administration’s efforts to prevent the loss and waste of food; increase the recycling of food and other organic materials; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; save households and businesses money; and build cleaner, healthier communities.
The strategy’s four principal objectives are:
- Prevent food loss,
- Prevent food waste,
- Increase the recycling rate for all organic waste, and
- Support policies that incentivize and encourage the prevention of food loss and waste and organics recycling.
FPA Action
FPA submitted one of 10,327 comments on the draft strategy. Commenters included industries and trade organizations, national and community-based nonprofit organizations, government agencies (e.g., federal, state, local, and tribal), and private individuals. FPA’s comments focused on highlighting the importance of flexible packaging to a modern food system and its direct role in reducing food loss and waste.
While FPA’s comments spurred some small acknowledgment that plastic packaging is here to stay and some recognition of the role of packaging, several areas were left unexplored. The final national strategy did not make the shelf-life benefits of flexible packaging explicit, did not state a systemwide approach to bio-based packaging, and did not explicitly commit to transferring packaging knowledge to partner markets.
Role of Flexible Packaging
Currently, food waste is the No. 1 contributor to greenhouse gases globally, and many organizations have developed programs to help decrease food waste and loss globally. The current goal set by the United Nations Global Compact and the Paris Accord is to cut food waste and loss in half by 2030. Global food waste and loss are approximately 35% of total global food production. Packaging and flexible packaging can be positive contributors to reducing food waste and loss.
FPA partnered with PTIS, LLC to update its previous report on food waste to understand, identify, and document all of the latest information and reports on the growing importance and ways flexible packaging can play a role in food waste reduction.
The focus of the revised report is how flexible packaging’s unique characteristics lead to a reduction in food waste during distribution, at retail establishments, and by the customer. The characteristics include new materials, additives, and active agents along with improved barrier properties of the materials used in flexible packaging, which extend shelf life, reclosability, enhanced product evacuation, and the ability to be sized appropriately. The results of the research were presented at the recent FPA FlexForward® Fall Conference in September.
Science-Based Solutions
Several flexible packaging science-based solutions to prevent food waste include:
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP): MAP helps to reduce microbial growth and oxidation (rancidity), and barriers are tailored to retain the specific atmo-sphere required.
- Vacuum packaging: Oxygen is removed via a vacuum, which helps to reduce microbial growth, oxidation (rancidity), and freezer burn, and barriers keep oxygen away from the food.
- Improved water vapor barrier: This method helps to reduce microbial growth and protects the texture; barriers keep water vapor out and in the package to extend shelf life.
- Improved light barrier: This strategy helps to reduce oxidation (rancidity), and special coatings on the package keep light away from the product.
- Antimicrobial packaging: Special coatings on flexible packaging barriers reduce microbial growth.
Packaging Design Solutions
These packaging design solutions prevent food waste, as well:
- Fridge packaging prevents food waste by ensuring food is not “lost” in the refrigerator.
- Resealable packaging enables the package to be resealed between uses, which decreases contamination, oxidation (rancidity), moisture loss and gain, and freezer burn.
- Beta packaging allows for food to be improved and altered before it reaches consumers. For example, think of chip bags that release critical and unique flavors from the packaging just before being consumed.
- Packaged multi-ingredient meal solutions with premeasured ingredients can reduce the discard of extra ingredients facilitated by flexible packaging to allow for ingredient size changes without excess packaging.
Sustainability initiatives are moving in the direction of a more sustainable food system versus focusing solely on product, processing, packaging, or isolated areas of the value chain (e.g., farm to factory and within factories). The updated FPA report concludes that flexible packaging reduces food waste and loss if a “systems approach” of looking at product and packaging is developed.
- For More Information
To view the full report, visit www.flexpack.org.
Dani Diehlmann is FPA vice president, communications.