LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 3B: PACKAGING 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
literature does acknowledge the ‘scripting’ role of designed goods (Jelsma 2006). Product attributes enable
or restrict consumers to act in a particular way. Jelsma posits that we may design ‘moralised products’ that
encourage consumers to act in the most desirable way. For example, packaging that reseals properly after
opening may script a reduction in waste. If one acknowledges that packaging attributes contributes to or
ameliorates food waste then more comprehensive packaging LCA’s including food product and food waste
are desirable. This requires an ‘upscaling of the functional unit’(Verghese et al., 2012a) to become the delivery
of consumed food.
‘Upscaling the functional unit’ to include food waste presents methodological challenges for LCA, in that
it is hard to imagine how the user phase can be standardized to make LCA studies comparable. This also
raises questions of why LCA is used. Is it to improve environmental performace or to compare products?
The purpose of this paper is not to solve these problems, but to demonstrate how packaging attributes affect
consumer behaviour and food waste, and thus should influence the outcome from a LCA study on packaging.
Our intention is to establish this opportunity on the agenda for the future discussion on how this knowledge
should be implemented into the LCA methodology for packaged food.
The structure of the paper first provides a background to issues of consumer food waste and introduces
fourteen packaging attributes that can affect food waste.Streamlined LCA case studies are presented to illustrate
the importance of considering food waste and packaging systems in conjunction with the food product.
The paper closes with a discussion of possible methods that could assist in including food waste within LCA
studies.
2. Background: packaging attributes that assist in reducing food waste
Recent studies in the United Kingdom suggest that up to a 1/3 rd of food that is purchased is thrown away
by the consumer, with 72% of the discarded food potentially avoidable, classified as either avoidable (57%)
and possibly avoidable (16%) (WRAP 2009, p.5). This suggests that theoretically 24% of all money spent on
food is wasted (1/3 rd food wasted x 72% potentially avoidable). The highest wasted foods, classifed by
WRAP, by category were salad items, bakery goods, fruit and vegetables. The reasons identified as to why
food was wasted are outlined in Table 1.
Table 1. Reasons for food waste and packaging attributes that may ameliorate. Source: Ventour (2008, p.
139)
Reason for food waste % weight Description Potential packaging interventions
Inedible 36.5 Bones, hard fruits, tea bags Debone prior to packaging
Left on plate 15.7 Not eaten after the meal Portion sizing
Out of date 15.1 Past ‘used by’ or ‘best before’ Portion sizing combined with labelling
292
date
Mouldy 9.3 Portion sizing, chemical protection & resealability
Looked bad 8.8
Smelt/tasted bad 4.5 Chemical protection & resealability
Left from cooking 4 Not served up onto plate Assist in portion sizing
In fridge/cupboard too 1.5 Portion sizing,
long
Freezer burn .5 Mechanical protection
Other 4.1
With an understanding of the top ten reasons for food waste and potential packaging interventions, we
turn our attention to looking in more detail at some of the numerous benefits that packaging materials and
packaging systems play in containing, protecting and delivering food. One of the core functions of packaging
is to protect the product. A wide range of packaging attributes exist that may ameliorate food waste. Williams
et al., (2008) identified a range of packaging attributes that may affect food waste, see below.
Packaging should also provide for mechanical protection. The packaging should not leak and it should
protect fragile products from mechanical impact. The packaging must resist pressure, strikes, rips and should
facilitate ease of handling and stacking at the retailer, home transport and storage and handling at home.
Packaging also offers physical-chemical protection of product, such as protecting the product against oxygen,
water or other agents from the surrounding atmosphere. This can be achieved by introducing different
kinds of barriers in the packaging material or by a modified atmosphere. These solutions can extend the time
that the product is fresh.