Food waste is one of the biggest challenges that is causing an exponential decline in the natural resources of our planet and filling up the landfills. If you run a food business, you should take appropriate steps to reduce food waste and save natural resources for the future.
Choosing suitable food packaging boxes can assist you in this regard. Suitably designed packaging boxes with appropriate features can play a significant role in minimising landfills and food waste.
In this blog, we will discuss the role of sustainable food packaging boxes in minimising food waste. Read on to find more!
Food Waste: A Big Problem
Food is scarce around the globe, and growing it in abundant quantities is no easy feat either. Many regions are encountering malnutrition and other problems due to scarcity of food. Food waste not only causes social and health problems but also poses many environmental and economic challenges. One effective way to minimize food waste and improve food storage is through the use of sustainable packaging solutions like cardboard cake boxes. These boxes are not only eco-friendly but also help preserve the freshness and quality of food items, reducing wastage and contributing to a healthier environment.
The wasted food products emit hazardous gases that enhance the drastic climate changes and cause pollution. Waste foods are an unnecessary addition to landfill and burden our planet with useless substances.
Major Causes of Food Waste
As we know food waste is a big problem that needs to be tackled wisely, let us dive into some important reasons for food waste. Taking the right measures and eliminating these food waste causes can minimise the hazards caused by the wastage of food:
- Overproduction: Producing food products more than needed by the people results in waste of the leftover items. Leftovers go to landfills and disturb the natural nutrient cycle. This wastage not only causes food scarcity for humans but also reduces nutrients for other living species, disturbing the ecosystem in the long run.
- Complicated Storage Processes: Even if the food is produced in sufficient quantity, it can go to waste due to improper storage. Every edible product has a life before which it is best to be consumed. Failure to accomplish complicated food storage processes including optimal temperature and humidity control is also one of the major reasons for food waste.
- Meeting the Standards Strictly: Retailers and food brands strive to meet high-quality standards to stand out in the food industry. To achieve this goal, they waste food that is edible but does not meet their quality standards. This practice leads to a major food waste problem.
Importance of Sustainable Food Packaging Boxes
Sustainable food packaging boxes have become highly popular in the market due to their unavoidable benefits. These packaging boxes are made of food-grade material that helps keep the food items fresh for a long duration. This way, they contribute to reducing food waste.
Apart from increasing the consumable life of food, sustainable packaging boxes are also excellent for our delicate environment. They are mostly made of recyclable and biodegradable materials. This way, they leave no carbon footprint and contribute to a greener future.
Another important feature of sustainable packaging boxes is compostability. The composted boxes act as a fertiliser for the plants. This feature makes them contribute to the natural nutrient cycle and become a part of the ecosystem.
4 Roles of Food Boxes in Minimising Food Waste
Carefully-made food packaging boxes can play a pivotal role in reducing food waste. Here are some of the most common roles of food packaging boxes in reducing the wastage of food items:
- Keeps Food Items Fresh
We know that people prefer to consume fresh food. Spoiled or contaminated food always goes to waste. Cardboard, Kraft, and other food packaging materials are excellent in increasing the shelf life of the food products. They keep them fresh by acting as a barrier against environmental factors.
Products that can interact with humidity and air and get spoiled can be packed in airtight packaging bags and boxes. These packages keep such sensitive food products dry and safe from the air resulting in their increased consumable life.
- Informs About Food Expiry
Expired food is mostly reprocessed and reused to make other food items. However, if people buy expired food, they will throw it in the trash. To avoid this, customised food packaging boxes can be helpful. If you are a food brand, mention the expiry date of your products on their packaging.
This way, your customers won’t buy expired food items or return unused products that expire. This strategy not only saves food from going to waste but also avoids health issues in people.
- Prevent Toxins From Contaminating Food Items
Certain packaging like that made from polythene, polyacrylic, and other similar plastic materials can melt under high temperatures and mix with food packed in them. This phenomenon is not only hazardous for the health of people but also causes food waste. It is because consumers can feel the changes in taste, and they won’t eat that.
To avoid this problem, you should go for food-grade packaging materials like cardboard, kraft, sugarcane, etc. Packages made with these materials do not alter the composition of the food packed in them even at high temperatures.
- Help Define Proportion Food to Reduce Waste
People buy more food than they need. And it is very common. The unused food goes to waste. To tackle this problem, food packaging boxes can play an important role. Food packaging boxes can be customised in the shapes and sizes of your requirements.
Make multi-sized packaging boxes with varying quantities of food items. This way people will be able to purchase foods that they can easily consume without wasting.
2 Innovative Practices to Reduce Food Waste
As we have discussed how appropriate food packaging boxes can help save food from going to waste, let us discuss innovative packaging boxes that can be used in the food industry. These two innovations can be highly beneficial in avoiding food wastage.
- Smart Packaging
Smart packaging is an excellent solution for indicating the freshness and condition of edible items without much hassle. They come with some distinctive features making them stand out from other types of packaging. Smart packaging is incorporated with biosensors that tell the actual expiry of the products packed in the packaging without the need to mention the expected expiry date.
Some of these smart packaging boxes come with optimal temperature indicators that show which temperature is best to keep the specific items packed in the boxes fresh.
- Active Packaging
Active packaging boxes are also becoming popular in the food industry due to their modern features. These packaging boxes have active oxygen absorbents in them. We know that many food items interact with oxygen present in the air, get oxidised and change their form.
Oxygen absorbing abilities of active packaging surpass this hassle and increase the life of food items. The antioxidants in these packages also restrict bacterial growth and avoid the chances of food contamination.
Conclusion
Food waste is one of the biggest challenges that is jeopardising the lives of millions of people. It is affecting other species as well and disturbing the ecosystem. If you are running a food business, you would need suitable packaging boxes that reduce food waste.
In this blog, we have discussed in detail the role of sustainable food packaging boxes in minimising food waste. Also, we have reviewed some innovative packaging boxes that help reduce food waste with their distinctive features.
As a food brand, you can adopt the tips and practices mentioned above to ensure you play your part in reducing food waste and ensuring a greener future for the next generations.
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