With food waste one of the biggest sustainability challenges Australasia faces, the PIDA programme has set out to encourage design innovation in this area.
The Save Food Packaging Design Special Award, a sought-after accolade in the Australasian Packaging Innovation and Design Awards programme, is designed to recognise companies that have developed innovative and sustainable packaging solutions that minimises food losses and food waste.
The gold award winner gains automatic entry into the 2019 WorldStar Packaging Awards and wins a custom EcodEX packaging environmental assessment valued at $10,000, sponsored by Empauer.
Gold Winner: Hazeldene's Chicken Farm & Sealed Air for Cryovac Darfresh on Tray vacuum skin technology that has been engineered to address key challenges facing the world's food processing industry including food safety, shelf life extension, operational efficiency and brand building. The pack can provide an increase in shelf life of 25 per cent over existing MAP applications. Food waste reduction is further facilitated by the fact that the packaging is easy-to-open as the tear tab and peelable top film allows for easy product access. This means no knives and no product damage. The pack is also freezer-ready and the vacuum environment ensures no product dehydration. The shelf life is visible and easy to find on the front of the pack, which makes meal planning for less waste easier. Serving size has been optimised to serve two, which meets the needs of today's typical household. This efficient portion size also further helps reduce food waste.
Silver Winner: Flavour Creations for its pre-thickened Ready-To-Drink (RTD) range of packaging, which are shelf-stable products with 12 months shelf-life when unopened. When the RTDs are packaged in the new Dysphagia Cup and Cup Holder they are designed to reduce food required for special medical purposes by enabling better motor control of the drinking process, improving grip, stability and ensuring the ability to consume the full contents. Best Before Dates are clearly legible on all packaging, which further helps to reduce food wastage.
