Food waste or food lost during the four stages of the food supply chain is not always caused by man’s behavior. Sometimes, poor packaging has a lot to do with it.
From the farms and handling of the agricultural food products by farmers, the food producers, to the food processors, retailers and down to the consumers, the ultimate end-user of these very important products, food is wasted because commodities, inadvertently spoil or expire and, eventually, go to waste.
Hence, Secretary Fortunato de la Peña of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said there is an urgent need for packaging research on the development of disaster relief goods, underscoring the critical role played by packaging in mitigating risks, enhancing preparedness, and food and medical supplies delivery in times of disasters.
At the same time, the DOST chief highlighted the need to formulate testing protocols to ensure the safety of disaster or relief goods during handling and distribution, taking into consideration the geographic conditions of countries located in the Asia Pacific.
In his keynote speech, de la Peña said packaging plays a critical role whether in business or in bigger concerns like food security and environment issues because of technology advancements and innovations that have widened the scope of relevance and reach for the packaging industry.
More important, the role of packaging in times of disasters, especially in the face of climate-change impacts, cannot be overemphasized, he explained.
De la Peña made these recommendations before members of the Asia Packaging Network (APN) and International Safe Transit Association-Asia Packaging Division (ISTA-APD) during a back-to-back International Packaging Symposium held from October 22 to 24 at a hotel in Makati City.
The twin events with 100 attendees highlighted the role of packaging in disaster preparedness. Among the topics include smart packaging technology, packaging materials, trends, innovation and sustainability packaging for food and agriculture, packaging regulations, testing and impact to trade, packaging design, printing and branding, and distribution packaging.
Prone to disaster
Focusing on the role of packaging in disaster preparedness, de la Peña said Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, are in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where natural disasters, such as typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, are common occurrences.
Unfortunately, he said, such natural events have become more devastating and harmful, causing significant loss of properties and lives.
“In the Philippines, we normally experience an average of 20 typhoons a year, with the Typhoon Perla [international code name Neogori] being the latest,” he said.
Packaging, he said, plays a critical role in mitigating disaster risks, enhancing the disaster preparedness, and food and medical supplies delivery to affected areas as fast as possible.
Supertyphoon Yolanda experience
The DOST chief said the Philippines was caught grossly unprepared when Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) made landfall on November 8, 2013.
The strength, when it landed in Eastern Samar was 330 kilometers/hour, and it had a wide coverage affecting Eastern, Central and Western Visayas, and some parts of Southern Luzon and Mindanao.
“The massive destructions, devastations, and loss of properties and lives of people have brought major challenges to the national government, as well as to the Filipino people,” he said.
Roads and airports leading to calamity-stricken areas were closed which caused difficulty in the delivery of basic social services, such as food, water and medicines.
He said the local government units (LGUs) and local service providers were, likewise, affected and it took several days for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other service providers to enter the affected areas.
Limited, hard to prepare food packs
He noted that packs of emergency food were limited to canned foods, noodles, coffee, rice and crackers that needed water and preparation.
“Canned foods, without easy-to-open ring-pulls, added a degree of unnecessary difficulty as can openers were hard to find since these were not included in the relief packages,” he pointed out.
Likewise, he said rice, instant noodles and coffee found no use to immediately address the hunger of calamity survivors.
“This situation has increased the magnitude of distress to the calamity survivors,” he said.
Lessons learned
Learning its lessons well from the Yolanda experience, the DOST and the Packaging Technology Division of the Industrial Technology Development Institute (PTD-ITDI) embarked on a program on the development of shelf-stable, ready-to-eat foods as disaster/relief foods based on international protocols.
A year later, the first ready-to-eat (RTE) food developed by the DOST’s PTD-ITDI was born—a chicken arroz caldo with a brand name “Pack of Hope” with a message of “in every pack, there is a hope to address hunger.”
“The RTE was designed to be a first-stage relief food to address both hunger and thirst of survivors for the first 48 hours of the calamity’s occurrence,” he said.
The food pack is lightweight and has a shelf life of at least one year.
The product, he said, was packaged to withstand aerial drop distribution at 20 feet height by land and by water submersion.
Field-tested RTE food packs
The development of the RTE food passed field testing and simulation trials following the ISTA test procedures, he said.
The following year, the chicken arroz caldo RTE was field-tested and distributed to survivors of typhoons, volcanic eruptions and landslides.
“When the landslide happened in the mining area of Itogon, Benguet, in September 2018 due to Typhoon Lawin, RTE chicken arroz caldo was distributed to victims by aerial drop since all roads going to the affected area were not passable,” he said.
The arroz caldo was also distributed along with smoked fish rice meal, another RTE product of the PTD-ITDI, during the recent earthquake in Batanes, as well as the 6.3-magnitude earthquake to affected people in affected areas in Mindanao.
The DOST’s PTD-ITDI has also developed boiled sweet potato and cassava in light syrup, all RTE food packs designed for distribution as disaster/relief goods.
De la Peña said going beyond RTE foods, the DOST’s Food Nutrition and Research Institute and the Food Processing Division of the ITDI also developed food packaging for energy bars with high nutrient content as emergency food, and instant powdered baby foods.
Extending shelf life
Correct packaging also plays an important role in extending the shelf life of fresh food.
According to the DOST chief, a recent study conducted by the PTD-ITDI indicated that through active packaging technology, the shelf life of fresh bread can be extended from three to five days or up to 90 days.
Field testing and trial distribution of fresh bread was already conducted by researchers.
Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara for Research and Development of the DOST agrees. She noted that enhancing the quality of food packaging and packaging of agricultural products will help reduce food waste, citing food waste in the case of highly perishable tomatoes.
“Almost half of tomatoes produced by farmers are lost because of poor packaging,” she said.
Helping farmers
She challenged researchers to help farmers reduce postharvest losses and increase their income through packaging that will extend the shelf life and avoid unnecessary food waste.
According to Guevara, on top of research to enhance food quality, they should also consider the balance between environmental protection and consumer safety.
Chief Science Research Specialist Daisy E. Tañafranca of the PTD-ITDI said the event aims to be a venue for exchange of ideas among researchers about packaging trends, it’s critical role in food security, food and consumer safety, and ways to improve management of wastes.
Tañafranca, who also heads the 10-member APN, said research on packaging needs funding, which hopes to come up with more competitive packaging designs that will pass international standards and boost exports.
1 comment
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