A new international position paper highlights the delicate balance between reducing food loss and waste while meeting packaging sustainability targets – a paradox that demands careful design, innovation and global collaboration.
Around the world, food loss and waste have become a pressing sustainability challenge, with the FAO estimating that more than a third of all food produced never reaches a plate. Alongside the environmental cost – wasted land, water and energy – comes the human cost of food insecurity, especially in developing regions.
Packaging, often seen as part of the problem, is in fact a crucial part of the solution. Done right, packaging prevents spoilage, extends shelf life and protects food from damage in transport and handling. Done poorly – or eliminated entirely – it risks compounding the very problem it seeks to solve. This tension lies at the heart of what has become known as the Food & Packaging Waste Paradox.
Addressing this issue is the focus of a new global position paper, Navigating the Food Loss & Waste Paradox: Balancing Food Loss & Waste with Save Food Packaging, published collaboratively by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and Wageningen University & Research.
Authors with global expertise
The position paper brings together the perspectives of three leading voices: Eelke Westra, of Wageningen University & Research, one of Europe’s foremost food and agriculture institutes; Nerida Kelton, executive director of the Australasian Institute of Packaging and VP Sustainability & Save Food at the WPO; and Aleksa Mirkovic, representing UNIDO, which plays a central role in sustainable industrial development globally.
By combining academic rigour, packaging expertise and policy perspective, the paper provides both technical depth and strategic guidance for governments, industry and civil society.
The importance of balance
The paper is clear: the true role of packaging is functionality. To protect, preserve, contain and transport food safely from production through to household consumption. It is packaging that keeps products hygienic, enables safe distribution, and prevents unnecessary waste.
But the paper stresses that sustainability targets cannot be achieved at the expense of functionality. A pack redesigned to reduce its material footprint, but which fails to prevent spoilage or damage, merely shifts the burden from packaging waste to food waste – with far greater environmental consequences.
“Over-packing wastes resources, while under-packing wastes food,” the paper notes. “Finding the optimum balance requires technical expertise, design innovation and a systems approach.”
This is the crux of the paradox. Policymakers often set ambitious packaging waste targets, while industry and consumers demand sustainable solutions. Packaging technologists must therefore tread a fine line, delivering designs that protect food effectively with the lowest possible environmental impact.
What is Save Food Packaging?
Central to the paper is the concept of Save Food Packaging. This refers to packaging specifically designed to minimise or prevent food waste from paddock to plate.
Key features include:
containment and protection to ensure product integrity throughout the supply chain; shelf-life extension through barrier properties or modified atmosphere; consumer convenience such as easy opening, resealability and portion control; clear communication of use-by dates, storage instructions and portion sizes; and material efficiency, ensuring that sustainability targets for packaging are also met.
These principles are not theoretical. The WPO’s annual WorldStar Packaging Awards showcase practical examples where Save Food Packaging is already making a measurable impact. From resealable meat trays that reduce spoilage, to portion-controlled packs that minimise household waste, the industry is proving that innovation in design can solve multiple challenges at once.
Global perspectives on sustainable food systems
The position paper was not written in isolation. Alongside its development, UNIDO facilitated a global consultation process, engaging 147 representatives from 53 countries. Participants spanned government, industry, NGOs and academia, bringing diverse perspectives on food systems and packaging.
The consultation highlighted a consistent theme: food security and sustainability are inseparable. In many developing regions, where food scarcity is acute, packaging can mean the difference between nourishment and hunger. For these communities, affordable, robust packaging is not an environmental burden but a lifeline.
However, the challenge lies in aligning national policies with international frameworks while considering local realities such as collection, recycling and recovery infrastructure. What works in one region may not be feasible in another. This underscores the need for context-specific approaches that reflect local conditions.
Recommended areas for action
The paper outlines several priority areas for building effective, resilient and sustainable food supply chains: strengthening centres of excellence in packaging, where expertise can be shared and scaled; raising public awareness and education about the dual role of packaging in sustainability and food security; improving data and measurement, enabling a systematic global approach to quantifying both food and packaging waste; fostering partnerships across industry, government and civil society to accelerate progress; expanding global outreach and advocacy, ensuring food and packaging waste remain on the international policy agenda; and supporting national and regional policy development with realistic, evidence-based frameworks. Taken together, these actions provide a roadmap for both immediate and long-term change.
The Australian perspective
For Australia, the paradox is especially relevant. National Packaging Targets push industry towards recyclable, compostable or reusable packaging, while parallel commitments aim to halve food waste by 2030. Achieving both requires nuanced thinking.
As Nerida Kelton notes, “It is about balance. Packaging professionals must design with the lowest possible environmental impact, but without losing sight of packaging’s role in protecting the product. If we lean too far towards one objective, we risk undermining the other.”
She adds that if more industry players embrace the Save Food Packaging Design Guidelines, the paradox becomes less intractable: “Guidelines give technologists a framework for design choices that achieve both food waste and packaging waste goals.”
Towards a systems-based solution
Ultimately, the paper calls for a systems approach that views packaging not in isolation but as part of the wider food supply chain. This means recognising its role in logistics, consumer behaviour, recycling infrastructure and food safety regulation.
Collaboration is critical – from producers who invest in robust packaging, to retailers who educate consumers, to policymakers who set realistic and harmonised standards. The success of any solution depends on all actors moving in the same direction.
Finding equilibrium
The Food & Packaging Waste Paradox reminds us that sustainability is rarely simple. It is about trade-offs, priorities and choices that must be made with a clear understanding of consequences.
Packaging, often maligned as a source of waste, is also one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent waste. With thoughtful design, innovation and collaboration, packaging can help achieve the dual goals of reducing both food waste and packaging waste.
As Kelton concludes: “If packaging professionals, researchers and food organisations across the globe adopt the Save Food Packaging guidelines, we can make real progress. The ability to resolve the paradox – to protect both food and the planet – lies within our reach.
This article was first published in the Sept-Oct issue of PKN Packaging News, page 48.
