Fruit and vegetables account for the greatest losses in the food industry, not only in absolute figures when it comes to the number of tonnes destroyed but also with respect to the costs incurred for waste and from an environmental perspective.
Henrik Essén, senior VP, Communication and Sustainability said a key component of its development work on smarter packaging involves a focus on improved food transport so it was a natural step for the company to be ‘part of Save Food’.
“The carbon footprint from organic products that are transported long distances but never consumed is very large", added Lars Broström, commercial director, Paccess, a subsidiary of BillerudKorsnäs. “About a quarter of this waste is attributable, unfortunately, to inadequate packaging.
"One problem is that few players in the supply chain look at the overall picture when it comes to transporting food and instead focus only on their own area of the supply chain.
“Companies often use cheap packaging that are only able to withstand the transport distance for which they are responsible."
In response to this, BillerudKorsnäs said it has developed the SoliQ corrugated box to withstand the difficult conditions associated with intercontinental transport of grapes and citrus fruits from South Africa to Europe.
Paccess is part of the BillerudKorsnäs Group and has its headquarters in Portland, Oregon and regional offices throughout Europe and Asia.
Save Food was launched in 2011 to reduce the amount of food lost or thrown away. An estimated 1.3bn tonnes of food is wasted each year, corresponding to 3.3 gigatonnes of CO 2 emissions. This can be compared with emissions from all road traffic in the US in 2010, which amounted to 1.5 gigatonnes.