Love plastic reduce food waste

The UK government has “missed an opportunity” to show how important plastic packaging is in reducing food waste, according to the Packaging and Films Association trade body (Pafa).

UK prime minister Gordon Brown urged consumers today to reduce food wastage and warned other world leaders that the issue must be tackled to address climate change.

Brown wants to see food wastage reduced and supply in poorer countries improved against the global backdrop of soaring food prices and growing environmental concerns.

A ten-month study commissioned by the UK government and published today noted: “in the developing world up to 40% of food harvested can be lost due to problems with storage and distribution.”

Yet it did not comment on the important role that plastic packaging plays in storage and distribution and its positive contribution to climate change, said Pafa chief executive David Tyson.

He said: “They acknowledge food production and transportation made a huge contribution to reducing food wastage but they made no comment at all about packaging.

“I think the government study didn’t go into that area perhaps because it was too sensitive but they have to be realistic they missed an opportunity to illustrate the contributions packaging makes to reducing food waste.”

Tyson warned: “If they don’t get consumers on board they are only getting half the battle completed.”

However, he added: “One of the things I was pleased about was that it did talk about reducing food waste by using the fridge – by using it to store fruit and vegetables. But they didn’t say that you can improve life further by keeping it in the packaging.”

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) campaign – Love Food Hate Waste – aimed at reducing food waste does promote some of the benefits of plastic packaging (PRW.com 23 April 2008).

Wrap ceo, Liz Goodwin, said: “An average [UK] household throws out £420 of good food a year but for the average family with children it’s even higher at £610. In a time of soaring food prices this makes no sense at all.

“What is more, stopping this food waste could avoid 18m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents from being emitted each year – the same as taking one in five cars off UK roads.”