The Food and Drink Federation has come out in support of the British Retail Consortium's warning of the dangers of setting unrealistic targets forrecycling of packaging, ahead of today's vote in the European Parliament.
Martin Paterson, deputy director general, said: "The food manufacturing industry takes its role in sustainability very seriously but food safety is the number one priority when packaging foodfor the consumer.
"Many manufacturers already have packaging recycling initiatives in place. FDF has also published environmental guiding principles for the industry, which calls on its members to use and develop packaging and distribution systems for which the packaging/product combination will make fewer demands on non-renewable and renewable natural resources. Product quality, safety and packaging functionality must not be compromised.
"The industry has produced a report for the Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, which sets out Key Performance Indicators to assistmanufacturers who are working to reduce packaging waste whilst still providing the consumer with safe, high quality products."
The European Directive on packaging recycling came into effect at the beginning of this year. Since then many of the major players involved in the food and beverage packaging sector have complained that the objectives are not realistic. One of the biggest disagreements has been the fact that the initiatives require large amounts of capital investment, which many of the smaller players are unable to achieve in the set time-frame.
The Food and Drink Federation represents and promotes the interests of the UK food and drink manufacturing industry, particularly within the context of European Commission rulings on the food and beverage industry. It address issues from sourcing to processing, packaging, labelling and distribution.
The report is available at www.fdf.org.uk