How packaging is cutting food waste and environmental impact

New series showcases Australia’s innovative food and grocery manufacturing industry 
 

The environmental impact of food waste and the role of packaging in reducing that impact is just one of the informative and inspiring stories in the new season of Sustaining Australia TV, the online news series dedicated to Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing industry. 

Season Four of Sustaining Australia TV, the series created by the Australian Food and Grocery Council and ASN Media, has been released online and features expert interviews and behind-the-scenes stories about Australia’s largest manufacturing industry. 

Among this year’s stories is the remarkable work of the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) on finding new ways to utilise food resources once regarded as waste, and the CRC’s latest research into the role of food packaging. CEO of the Fight Food Waste CRC, Dr Stephen Lapidge, tells Sustaining Australia TV that while many consumers think food packaging is a bigger environmental issue than food waste, the opposite is true.  

“If you reduce packaging too much then you will increase food waste and there’s a lot more environmental damage created by increasing food waste than creating the packaging,” Dr Lapidge says. 

There are four episodes in Sustaining Australia TV covering the biggest issues in Australian food and grocery manufacturing including the future of manufacturing, the role of regional businesses, building circular economies and reducing emissions. Stories filmed around the country feature interviews with leaders of some of the country’s best-known brands and most innovative businesses: Arnott’s, Caldermeade Farm, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Essity, Frucor Suntory, Sunrice, SPC, Tip Top, Americold, Dematic, Packserv and APR Plastics. Also featured are experts from ANZ Bank’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Insights team and the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures. 

Find the Fight Food Waste CRC story and the rest of the Sustaining Australia TV series on the AFGC website or the AFGC YouTube channel.

For more information and access to footage contact Peter Trute.