“We welcome the initiative taken by the Women’s Institute to draw attention to the need for more sustainable packaging, while recognising the essential role played by packaging in ensuring that food and other products arrive at the consumer in good condition and with the minimum of wastage,” said vice chair of the IoP board Dr Paul Butler.

Jean Sheppard, above, who heads up public affairs at the federation, will top the bill at the society’s seminar programme at the Total Processing & Packaging show in May. “Our members would like to see more prevention in packaging and we would like to see all packaging moved to compostable or more easily recyclable materials,” Noelle Virtue, research & campaigns officer at the federation, told FPJ. “We are looking at prevention - for example, there is no need for cucumbers or peppers to be shrink-wrapped, or for bags of bananas. Bananas already have a skin of their own and there is no need for them to be packaged in plastic bags that cannot be recycled. This is frustrating for our members.”

The society is also keen to show its support for the federation’s moves for a reduction in food waste. “There is a critical need for the public as well as retailers to reduce the amount of food waste they generate,” said Butler. “In many ways this is a far more serious problem than excess packaging, because of the resources needed to produce, process, pack, store and transport food that ends up in the dustbin.”

Butler also pointed to the society’s Starpack packaging competition and training courses as evidence of its drive for a more sustainable packaging industry. “Through measures such as these, the society is striving to improve packaging standards, promote sustainability and enhance company competitiveness by reducing the cost of packaging,” he said.

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