The AIP Save Food Packaging consortium has won the inaugural End Food Waste Australia Food Waste Action Award for Collaboration for the world-first Save Food Packaging Criteria and Framework project.
The consortium includes the Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP) as the project lead, RMIT University as the research arm, and an industry led consortium that brought together experts in the field including Sealed Air, Zipform Packaging, Multivac, Result Group and Plantic.
One of the objectives of this project was for the AIP to establish a voice for Save Food Packaging within the greater realm of sustainability and packaging design.
The AIP wanted to start talking to the industry about ’getting the balance right’ between Food Waste and Packaging Waste when discussing environmental impacts of product and packaging.
The project, which is a part of the End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, has developed a world-first set of Save Food Packaging Design Criteria including: resource booklets, criteria checklists, design icons, training modules and academic papers.
The Save Food Packaging project resources provide training and education materials.
These materials will result in better packaging design, material selection and format selection using appropriate portioning, sealability, resealability features, date labelling, extend shelf life and provide the information required to assist retail, food service and consumers to minimise food waste.
The Save Food Packaging Design Criteria has been globally disseminated through workshops, industry trade shows, sustainability events, and training modules presented by the AIP.
This project is just the start of the AIP continuing to be the subject matter experts in Save Food Packaging design and raising the voice for such an important topic.
The next step is for the AIP to help guide businesses into embedding the 5x Save Food Packaging Design principles into their own business.
‘Getting the balance right’ has now become a cornerstone of the AIP, and the Institute is extremely proud that they were recognised nationally for this industry-important initiative.