One fifth of all food available to consumers eventually goes to waste, amounting to 1.05 billion tonnes every year (UNEP, 2024). This waste has significant economic, social, and environmental consequences, from contributing to food insecurity to generating 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As we look for ways to build a more sustainable future, addressing food waste is a critical piece of the puzzle. Packaging, often seen as a separate environmental issue, plays a surprisingly vital role in this fight. The right packaging, particularly innovative flexible packaging, can be one of our most effective tools for preserving food, extending its life, and ensuring it reaches consumers safely. This post will explore how flexible packaging offers a powerful solution to the global food waste problem, from the farm to your kitchen.

Extending Shelf Life and Ensuring Freshness

A primary cause of food waste is spoilage. From the moment produce is harvested, or a product is made, it begins a race against time. Oxygen, moisture, light, and contaminants can quickly degrade quality and safety. As a result, food may get tossed before anyone can sell or eat it. However, flexible packaging steps in as a strong first line of defense.

The Power of Barrier Protection

Modern flexible packaging materials are engineered with advanced barrier properties. These multi-layer films are designed to create a controlled environment inside the package, protecting the contents from external factors that cause spoilage.

• Oxygen Barriers: Oxygen is a key driver of spoilage, leading to oxidation that affects taste, colour, and nutritional value. High-barrier films prevent oxygen from entering the package, significantly slowing down this degradation process. This is essential for products like processed meats, cheese, and snacks.

• Moisture Barriers: Excess moisture can lead to mold and bacterial growth, while a lack of moisture can cause products like baked goods to become stale. Flexible packaging helps maintain the ideal moisture level, keeping food fresh and safe for longer.

• Light Barriers: Exposure to light can degrade vitamins and cause discoloration in certain foods. Opaque or specially treated films block harmful UV rays, preserving the product's quality and appearance.

By carefully controlling these elements, flexible packaging can extend the shelf life of many food products by days, weeks, or even months. This longer window gives retailers more time to sell products and allows consumers to enjoy them before spoilage occurs. Most importantly, it means less food ends up as waste.

Reducing Waste Across the Supply Chain

Food waste doesn't just happen at home. Significant losses occur at every stage of the supply chain, from post-harvest handling and transportation to retail storage. Flexible packaging offers targeted solutions to minimize this waste from start to finish.

Protection During Transit

Food often travels a rough and long journey, starting at the farm and ending in stores. Poor handling and protection can lead to bruising, crushing, or contamination. These problems make products unsalable. Flexible packaging changes that. It’s lightweight and durable, providing excellent protection against damage. Unlike rigid containers, it conforms to a product’s shape, which minimizes movement and impact. As a result, more food arrives safely at its destination, so less is lost on the road.

Efficiency at the Retail Level

For retailers, flexible packaging brings several waste-reducing advantages. Its light weight lowers shipping costs and uses less fuel, which helps the environment. In addition, innovative options like stand-up pouches and resealable bags make products easier to stock and display.

Resealable features are especially valuable. Shoppers can open a package, use a portion, and then close it securely. This keeps food fresher, helps avoid spoilage, and reduces the odds of tossing out leftover.

Smart Design for Less Consumer Waste

In many developed countries, consumers generate a large part of food waste. Buying too much, improper storage, or confusion about freshness all play a role. Flexible packaging design targets these issues.

The Rise of Portion Control

Flexible packaging allows for a wide range of sizes, making it easy for brands to offer single-serving or smaller-portion options. This helps consumers buy only what they need, which is especially useful for single-person households or for trying a new product without committing to a large quantity. This "right-sizing" of packaging is a simple yet effective way to prevent the waste that comes from unfinished bulk packages.

Resealable and Convenient Features

Think about how many times you've rolled up a bag of chips with a clip, only to find them stale a few days later. Emmerson Packaging develops solutions with built-in resealable zippers and sliders that create a more reliable seal. This convenient feature makes it easy for consumers to properly store partially used products, preserving their freshness and preventing them from being thrown away prematurely.

Emmerson Packaging's Commitment to Sustainability

To tackle food waste, packaging must balance protection and environmental impact. At Emmerson Packaging, we place sustainability at the heart of what we do. A solution for one problem shouldn’t create another.

We design high-performance flexible packaging that’s also eco-friendly. Our team is committed to creating options such as:

• Recycle-Ready Materials: We engineer mono-material packaging that delivers essential barriers yet can be fully recycled.
• Compostable Films: For the right uses, we offer certified compostable packages that break down in industrial composting, helping support a circular economy.

We collaborate with our partners to find the right balance of food protection, convenience, and responsibility. By guiding brands through the process, we help them reach sustainability goals without sacrificing quality.

A More Sustainable Future, Together

Everyone shares a part in fighting food waste. Through smarter decisions at every stage of food production, packaging, and consumption, we can make real progress. Flexible packaging unlocks advanced protection and convenience, helping food stay fresh and out of landfills.

At Emmerson Packaging, we’re proud to help lead that progress. We’ll keep innovating to show what flexible packaging can do—for our customers, consumers, and the planet.