The Save Food Packaging Design of the Year award is designed to recognise companies that are working to minimise or prevent food waste from paddock to plate using innovative and intuitive design features that can contain & protect, preserve and extend shelf life; all the while meeting global sustainable packaging targets.
Co-hosts of the awards ceremony, AIP executive director Nerida Kelton and PKN publisher Lindy Hughson concurred that this is one of the most important categories in the PIDA awards.
"Food waste - we all know it’s a problem of epic proportions with a significant environmental impact," said Lindy Hughson."In Australia alone, around 7.5 million tonnes is wasted annually, more than 50% of that at household level. This makes designing packaging to save food a strong imperative for all food manufacturers, whether that be by using materials with enhanced barrier properties, ensuring sealing integrity and the offering the possibility of resealing, or using smart technologies to track cold chain and supply chain activity."
GS1 Australia and Woolworths won silver in this category for 2DBarcodes by GS1, and there were two gold winners.
In its third gold win of the day, Caps & Closures triumphed for the ThermoShield Temperature Monitoring System, which also won in the food packaging category.
Sealed Air NZ also took home gold, for the packaging for Inghams Waitoa Free Range Butterflied Chicken, a pre-marinated format that enables an easy open and easy cooking experience and that is an easy way to mitigate waste in households.
Apart from cooking and storage instructions, and a best-before date, on-pack information includes a scannable QR code offers consumers each access to the Waitoa website for meal inspiration ideas.
Nylon can be a nuisance for recycling streams, so a high polyethylene equivalent bag of equal gauge (65 micron) was designed to overcome recycling challenges without compromising abuse resistance and protection. The Cryovac solution incorporates 80 per cent recycled materials in this food-contact packaging application. The vacuum tight hermetic seal keeps poultry fresh and mitigates risks for human contamination.
Using the CRYOVAC brand 80 per cent recycled content barrier pouch, shelf life has increased by 40 per cent to 14 days, attributable to both switching to a high barrier film and optimising processing techniques at Inghams.
This pack is Australasian Recycling Label soft plastics recyclable in New Zealand and recyclable through RedCycle/store drop off programs in Australia.
