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Packaging to help food plight

Cape Town - The first conference on how to better preserve food and prevent its wastage recently took place in Cape Town.

It also demonstrated the huge need for better packaging in South Africa.
 
According to Lukas Bartek the business director for Du Pont, who hosted the conference, rising food prices have also been highlighted as the contributing fact to consumer inflation.

“It was reported that April’s rising food prices were among the chief drivers behind the relatively large 1.3% month-on-month increase in the consumer price index which pushed the annual rate of inflation to 6%," he said.

"The annual rate of food inflation is now up at 7.2% (from 3.2% in December) and is expected to increase over coming months if the rand were to continue to weaken."

He further explained that each year a third of the food the world produces is lost or wasted.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) this amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tonnes, equivalent to three times the South African population.

“This is shocking considering that 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry every night and more than 20 000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger.

Packaging plays a major role in preventing food loss and waste. The causes for food waste vary greatly from country to country and require solutions tailored to each region and in some cases, each category of food.

“This seminar also brought the packaging industry together, amongst them being brand owners like Woolworths. Together we looked at solutions in the industry," he said.

"We also looked at the weight of packaging and reducing the carbon footprint. In other words increasing the shelf life of products and the safety of it."

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