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Packaging of fresh fruit and vegetables has been pretty much trashed by the media. Against the backdrop of a broader, harder to define environmental debate, photos of shrink-wrapped swedes have served as an easy way of stirring consumer consciousness of the need to make better use of resources. Indeed, stripping fresh produce of its packaging has become an end in itself for some commentators.

There are indications, however, that a more measured view is starting to emerge. Wrap's recent Love Food Hate Waste initiative has largely identified misuse of product rather than application of packaging as the principal cause for concern. UK households dump an estimated 6.7m tonnes of uneaten food in the bin per annum; 40% of that is fresh produce worth £3bn. With the war on waste extending to the home front – and aside from the prudently proffered advice to eat up our leftovers – the capability of packaging to prolong active life is taking on a revitalised resonance.

This presages a significant sea change from the government-funded watchdog's earlier support for reduction as the principal cure-all. "There's no doubt that well-designed packaging has a role to play in helping consumers to reduce the amount of food they throw away," says Wrap's project manager for food and food waste, Andrew Parry. "We're not on the side of The Independent and the Daily Mail in saying that the only good packaging is no packaging; we're taking the more intelligent approach towards encouraging optimisation."

While this apparently fresh thought for food is now commanding the attention of hitherto anti-packaging lobby groups such as the WI, optimisation is something that the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen) has effectively been promoting for years. "What's being realised is that there's a trade-off between packaging and product wastage," says the organisation's director, Jane Bickerstaffe. "No manufacturer will use packaging if he can get his goods through the supply chain without it because his costs will be that much lower. It's always been obvious to us, but not so to the politicians.

"None of us goes shopping for packaging; we go for products. We want those to be in good condition, so we take the packaging for granted. The problem is that no one tells consumers what it's doing; that's what we need to get better at."
Bickerstaffe cites the cucumber as a classic example. "Because it's 96% water it loses vitality after a few days. If you put 1.5g of plastic wrap around it, shelf-life extends to 14 days. That's a tiny bit of material to use for a very good purpose."

Loose produce can still benefit from being stored within a re-sealable or even a counter-dispensed LDPE bag in the fridge, says Andrew Parry. "A 2g-weight bag is the equivalent to 5g of CO2. When you consider that a carrot is over 40g; a tomato is over 150g, and a lettuce is 600g in terms of equivalent CO2 emissions, if that bag can help preserve just one piece of fruit or veg then it's more than done its job."

A workable solution at home, however, doesn't necessarily correspond with in-store requirements. Having trialled removing all protective packaging from its fresh produce area across five stores in February, Asda was forced to rethink its strategy due to a significant uplift in spoilage, says packaging buyer Shane Monkman. "Had it been successful, eliminating packaging in this category would have equated to the single biggest reduction project in our business. In reality, we doubled the waste to around 6% due to several factors: acceleration of the ripening process; produce becoming damaged and not subsequently purchased; and the practical difficulties of keeping track of stock rotation."

Monkman adds that while removing packaging could work with some lines, his team found that many customers preferred to buy packaged produce, in part because it hadn't been handled by anyone else. "They wanted it clean; quite often, they wanted it prepared. There's a wide gap between the received perception and how customers are actually reacting," he says.

Longer life
New film technology, reduction and the use of alternative formats and substrates including recyclate are all very much part and parcel of the optimisation package. Innovia's new 'PropaFresh' BOPP film, for example, is the latest of a fresh crop of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) products aimed at extending shelf life of prepared salads. Meanwhile, a recent Wrap-initiated project via Marks & Spencer using impulse-heat technology to improve shelf performance of flow-wrap salad bags through the introduction of an integrity seal has reduced pack weight by 10%, confirms M&S head of packaging Helene Roberts.

Lightweighting has become a given, leading to some degree of switching from rigid to flexible packaging. One example is Amcor's 'PushPop', which is used by UK fruit supplier Utopia for fresh cherries available through Waitrose. Amcor Flexibles marketing director Phil Downey says: "We can achieve a weight reduction of 60% to 80% by applying PushPop as a pre-made pouch or vertical form, fill and seal. It extends the shelf-life of fresh produce using P-Plus MAP technology." The pack retains its shape throughout storage.

Thermoformed tray and punnet manufacturers such as Sharp Interpack are not only reducing weight – for example, its SP punnet is just 23g including lid – but also making greater use of recycled post-consumer waste, up to 60% in some packs. According to Trevor Owen, the intention is to go further along the rPET route. "We would like to have our trays returned for recycling as currently most are going straight to landfill. It's quite feasible but there's no infrastructure in place. It's estimated that there are more than 1m tonnes of used trays and 'non-bottle' plastics that could be recovered and rendered as food-safe, and which could go through the loop four or five times without any major loss of properties."

Sorting the issue
The current absence of a mixed plastics waste stream is one thing; how it will cope with biodegradables is another. "There isn't a silver bullet to resolve this," says NatureWorks European business development manager Eamonn Tighe, "but as waste management systems are in the process of being put into place, why not allow for bio-plastics within that strategy? A quarter of what goes through the recycling gate is already contaminant; it could all be easily segregated if there was a will to do it."

Commercial as well as environmental reality might provide the necessary impetus. The escalating price of oil has helped to bring NatureWorks' plant-based Ingeo into within 10% or even parity with some conventional flexible films, says Tighe.

"Three or four years ago, a discussion about bio-plastics would have been a foreign language; now everyone is talking about the need to look at other raw materials apart from oil. Our current capacity of 150,000 tonnes is less than 0.1% of the corn grown in the US, plus within five years we'll be able to use bio-mass derived from corn-waste (the stalks and leaves that are left behind). We're now planning to double output via maybe five production centres worldwide, including possibly in the UK."

Other solutions making headway are Innovia's NatureFlex and a volcanic lava-based substrate from Long Life Solutions.

hile some retailers – notably Sainsbury's and M&S – are already taking bio-plastics seriously, not everyone is convinced. Asda has a policy of no biodegradable packaging because the infrastructure isn't in place to deal with it, says Shane Monkman. "You've got to reflect the reality on the ground for customers; if they can't do anything with it, then you're hardly solving any of their problems."