Environmental issues, waste and increasing costs are just some of the problems currently facing food and beverage companies.

There needs to be constant innovation and development of new or more efficient materials for labelling and packaging if the industry and the planet are to survive.

According to WRAP (the Waste and Resource Action Programme), £10 billion worth of food is wasted in the UK on an annual basis. This is an incredibly disturbing statistic and one which requires immediate attention from the food and drink industries, retailers and the general public.

Part of the fault lies with consumers who buy certain products on impulse and don’t get around to eating them before their use by dates have passed, meaning they must be disposed of. This occurs with many items from the odd, unused potato to entire chickens or joints of meat – unbelievable at any time, never mind during times of such hardship, so what is the packaging industry doing to alleviate the problem?

Oxygen, although essential to life, is also one of the elements that reacts with foods and ultimately destroys them through the rotting process. The mere hint of a mouldy patch is sometimes enough to induce people into throwing away that expensive cheddar, instead of storing it properly and simply cutting away the mouldy part – what is underneath being perfectly safe to eat in the majority of cases.

New developments have come about in the form of packaging that extends the shelf life of the products it is protecting by as many as two or three times, thanks to a significant reduction in the amount of oxygen allowed to enter the pack itself.

Lids and seals ensure a strong barrier through which hardly any oxygen can pass, meaning products such as preserves, cucumber, cabbage and other vegetables will stay fresh for longer. While taking advantage of this barrier, lids can also retain the added protection they have afforded to consumers for many years – the ‘click’ sound, to signify whether or not it has been used previously.

The carbon footprint of businesses makes its way to the forefront of consumers’ minds more often when they are shopping for foods and beverages, which means manufacturers must do their utmost to impress the public with their environmental credentials. This is where progress in the development of sustainable packaging and smarter labelling is beginning to come into its own.

There have been several advertising campaigns of late indicating the efforts various companies are making in order to reduce the amount of packaging being used for their products, which catches the public eye and makes certain foods and beverages a more popular choice than others.

The advantages of using and promoting sustainable packaging are threefold. The environment is the immediate benefactor, with the manufacturer and consumer following closely behind. Less packaging means less energy usage, which is a positive step towards improving the state of our delicate environment.

A reduction in packaging means that production costs will also fall significantly, allowing manufacturers to pass any savings onto their customers. Giving consumers the chance to benefit financially from the positive changes you have made will certainly enhance your company’s reputation, as well as show the way for others.

In association with several of the larger supermarkets and food manufacturers, WRAP is conducting a series of studies on the packaging of certain products in order to try and identify where reductions and improvements can be made.

It has been proposed that trays for chickens are dispensed with, to be replaced simply with labelled shrink wrap showing only the required information, giving a potential reduction in materials of up to 75 per cent.

Labelling companies are jumping on the sustainability and cost-saving bandwagon by improving the effectiveness of some of their label application machinery. Certain equipment is now available which can apply top labels and ‘C’ labels to a variety of packs, of all shapes and sizes, with relatively little downtime involved in any product changeovers.

The vacuum packing of meat products is also being looked into, with a view to extending the scope of any energy and cost savings to cover other fresh foods. Cost and waste will inevitably be reduced through the more considered use of packaging solutions but there is still a need for the further education of the public, to prove the worth of any efforts made by manufacturers and retailers.

Consumers must be made more aware of the cost of wasting foods and beverages - £50 in uneaten products is wasted on average each month by UK households - and learn to shop more wisely. One of the key ways to ensure we don’t buy items that are likely to be thrown away is to make a list of the essentials and stick to it, and never shop on an empty stomach as this leads to impulse buying.

Consumers and packaging companies can make a real difference to the food and beverage markets but only if they work together.

Nicole Tinmurth, Food & Drink Network UK, 28 January 2010