A Kenyan start-up developing fruit-based edible packaging has been named the winner of the SAVE FOOD Project competition at interpack.
The award was presented during the SAVE FOOD Forum on day six of the event, which also included the Save Food and Sustainable awards. More than 100 entries were received “from all corners of the globe”, according to Nerida Kelton, WPO vice president of Sustainability & Save Food.
The winning project, “Edible Primary Packaging Innovation Pilot”, was developed by Trueways Enterprises, a small start-up in Kenya owned by Irene Kalondu Mumo. The "Edible Primary Packaging Innovation Pilot" project is being realised in partnership with the Institute of Packaging Professionals Kenya (IOPPK).
Mumo was unable to attned, but in a statement shared at the forum, Mumo said, “Winning this award is a powerful validation of our vision to rethink packaging at its source. Through our edible fruit-based packaging innovation, we are addressing two critical challenges at once, food waste and plastic pollution.”
She said the approach involves converting “surplus and cosmetically rejected fruit into edible packaging” to extend shelf life and reduce post-harvest losses.
“This support enables us to move from concept to validated solution, advancing a traceable, circular and sustainable food system that strengthens broken food value chains while eliminating waste at both the processing and consumption stages,” she said.
“Ultimately, we are not just packaging food, we are creating packaging that is food.”
The SAVE FOOD forum also included panel discussions moderated by Nerida Kelton and WPO's Johannes Bergmair, with participants from organisations including UNIDO, FAO, Messe Düsseldorf, Kuehne+Nagel, Foundation FSSC, SIG Group and MULTIVAC Group.
Key themes from the discussions included the need for collaboration across stakeholders to create more sustainable food systems, and for more governments to measure food loss and waste.
Kelton noted that companies should embed Save Food packaging design principles into their operations and that wider participation in the SAVE FOOD initiative would support collective action.
She said designing intuitive packaging plays “such an integral role in minimising food loss and waste”, and noted that the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and the Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP) are part of the SAVE FOOD initiative.
Major milestone
In another major win, it was formally acknowledged at the SAVE FOOD Forum that the Australasian Institute of Packaging's Save Food Packaging design guildelines are now embedded in the FSCC 22000 version 7 which has just been launched.
Nerida Kelton led the Save Food Packaging design guidelines project for the last eight years, working with teams of collaborators through the End Food Waste project and alongside RMIT University.
