Securing Safe Nutrition for All Through Sustainable Food Packaging

The world is just six years away from the UN Sustainable Development Goals deadline of 2030. The progress made is stark, especially in achieving the latter's second goal- to create a world free of hunger.

The statistics are far from comforting: according to the UNICEF's latest report on ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023’, 2.4 billion people – that is about one in three of the total world population – did not have access to nutritious, safe and sufficient food all-year round in 2022. Also, more than 735 million people, about 1 in 10, were in a state of chronic hunger.

Current political Issues have had an impact on food systems and overall inflation has put added pressure on feeding the world population, with millions of children – our future generation – continuing to suffer from stunting (148 million) and wasting (45 million) as a result.

At the same time, roughly a third of the world’s food is wasted, which is equivalent to about 1.3 billion tons, with the Middle East region being one of the world’s largest food wasting regions recording an astonishing 250 KG of food per capita going to waste annually.

A weighty issue in the GCC region

There is an increased realisation backed by concerted action in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region about the food waste challenge. The United Arab Emirates launched ne’ma, the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, to reduce food waste by half before the turn of this decade, underpinned by estimates that 38% of food prepared in the country is wasted.

Similarly, experts in Saudi Arabia have called for new initiatives to combat the challenge of food waste, with an event organised by Saudi Platform in cooperation with the Vision Platform that called on people to take action on this front, citing that about a third of food is wasted in the country, valued at about US$10.66 billion annually.

The role of efficient food packaging and processing

Efficient food processing technologies and packaging solutions have an important role to play in improving food supply chains and building resilience into food systems. And this commitment is at the heart of Tetra Pak’s ‘Go Nature. Go Carton 3.0’ philosophy.

Our focus is on taking collective action that help decarbonise and transform the world’s food systems, while contributing to circularity  and increase food packaging recycling. We are reaching out to all stakeholders to drive discussions and tangible action, having set measurable targets, underlining our role in food systems transformation.

For example, with global waste predicted to increase 70 per cent by 2050, we have set a target to “increase global access to safe nutritious foods through our ambient packaging solutions by 2 billion litres by 2030. How do we do this?

Aseptic food packaging for extended shelf life

Our aseptic processing and packaging technologies have now made it possible to protect perishable foods, extending their shelf life, ensuring food products can reach even remote geographies without inadequate cold chain infrastructure. 

Nature-based solutions can play a key role in solving the world’s sustainability challenges, and paper-based carton packages help provide access to safe food for people everywhere.

Aseptic processing and packaging can preserve perishable foods safe for six to 12 months without refrigeration or preservatives, while retaining their colour, texture, taste and nutrition. 

We continue to focus on advancing food processing technologies that help reduce food waste during production. This is highlighted by our journey to develop the world’s most sustainable food package, made from responsibly sourced renewable or recycled materials, which are fully recyclable and carbon neutral.

Winning together for Nature

Today, as a world leading food processing and packaging solutions company, Tetra Pak provides access to safe, nutritious food for hundreds of millions of people in more than 160 countries every day.

Drawing on this strength as well as our innovative tech-driven advances in packaging and processing, we are further strengthening our collaboration to address a challenge that is among the most pressing for humanity.

What makes this journey rewarding is that we are not looking at food waste in isolation. We are approaching this issue through the wider lens of transitioning to more secure, sustainable and resilient food systems.

This is important because food systems today can be inefficient and unsustainable, responsible for over one third of GHG emissions, as well as causing deforestation and biodiversity loss.

For over 60 years, we have been creating value to society and individuals, helping deliver nutritious food around the world through school feeding programmes and providing access to safe nutrition to children and vulnerable communities. 

In the GCC, we collaborated with our partners on ground such as the Government of Iraq and the Hayel Bin Saeed Group in Yemen to activate two school feedings programs in these countries. The programs reach tens of thousands of students across the public schools system and aim to provide children with access to nutrition essential for their growth. The school milk programs have demonstrated their effectiveness in helping improve school attendance, and support the local dairy value chain.

Tetra Pak started with the vision to provide a package that "saves more than it costs". We will continue to deliver on this vision with managing food wastage being top of mind for us– and in doing so – along with our partners feed the world while protecting our planet.

ENDS