Shelf Life Extension

Plastics offer a variety of barrier solutions that protect products from reacting with external elements such as oxygen or the UV rays in light, and this allows them to stay on retail shelves and in the home for many months without the need to be refrigerated.

BENEFITS OF SHELF LIFE EXTENSION
 

• Barrier plastic can typically give 18 months of shelf life without the need for preservatives.
• Effective food protection and a longer shelf life help to minimise food waste.
• There is less dependency on the chill cabinet and the chilled supply chain.
• Pack solutions can be created for a wide variety of products including ready meals, sauces, soups, fruit desserts, nuts, snacks, dips, vegetable spreads, dairy products and pickles.
• Design flexibility creates unique and eye-catching packs for shelf stand out, premium positioning, brand differentiation and ease of use.
• Packs are fully recyclable.
• Barrier packs can help develop new product sectors, for example pre-prepared stocks and spices that can be easily added to a meal for a home-cooked taste with less preparation time.
• Packs can be developed to suit different lifestyle requirements, from individual portion packs to larger, reclosable family sizes.
• Packs are lightweight, safe, easy to handle and break resistant.
• Packs may be microwaved or cooked in a conventional oven.
• Packs can be pasteurised and may be retorted for sterilisation during filling.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTS

• The lighter weight of plastics generally means less use of resources.
• It is estimated that plastic packaging accounts for only 1.5% of oil and gas use
• More than 50% of all products manufactured in Europe are packed in plastics. According to weight however, plastics account for only 17% of the total of packaging materials used.
• Lighter weight and bulk reduce supply chain effects, notably fuel for transport (in a typical application, the same truck will transport over 50% more yogurt when packed in plastic as opposed to glass).
• Initial work on LCA demonstrates that, in many applications, the carbon effect is lower when plastics are used (up to 25% improvement reported by Nestlé for a baby food pack).
• If plastics were not used in packaging and other materials were used instead, then waste and energy consumption would double, and weight and costs would quadruple.
• Barrier plastics are fully recyclable and the barrier materials contained in the packs do not impede the recycling process.
• Ambient shelf-stable products do not require refrigeration, offering valuable energy savings.
• With modified atmosphere plastic packaging, shelf life can be increased from 5-10 days, allowing food loss in stores to be reduced from 16% to 4%.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD WASTE

• Food wastage in developing countries can be as high as 50%; in the UK only 3% goes to waste before it reaches the shops. Packaging makes a considerable contribution to this.
• Almost 50% of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK comes from our homes. We throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year in the UK, and more than half of this is food and drink we could have eaten.
• Wasting this food costs the average household £470 a year, rising to £700 for a family with children, the equivalent of around £60 a month
• We throw away more food from our homes than packaging in the UK every year.

Visit: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com