Health and Eco-Innovations in Food Packaging

Packaging plays a pivotal role in preserving food quality, integrity and safety along the whole food supply chain. Its importance is also linked to the possible reduction of food loss and waste aimed at promoting more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Actually, at the end of food product use, a large amount of packaging is wasted and often it escapes formal collection and recycling systems and eventually it end-ups polluting our environment. Hence, there is the need to contribute to packaging innovations able to minimize food loss and waste by optimizing the use of the materials such as active, intelligent and sustainable packaging. In this context, there is a large room for innovation in the packaging sector in the attempt to enhance food safety and to maintain the quality of products. Also, innovative packaging may have higher chances to satisfy the social needs in increasing the sustainability of individual choices, reaching the Sustainable Development Goals indicated by the 2030 UN Agenda. In the light of these premises, the aim of this chapter is twofold. First, it is to explore whether consumers are willing to purchase food products packaged with innovative solutions as well as define the determinants of their intentions. Second, it is to investigate if the food and drink manufacturers are willing to invest in such packaging innovations. In order to reach the aforementioned objectives, 260 Italian consumers were surveyed and 20 Italian micro and small-medium entrepreneurs were interviewed. Preliminary results show that most of the consumers are interested in buying food products packed with innovative solutions, with a particular emphasis on sustainable packaging such as biodegradable and compostable ones. Finally, most of the interviewed manufacturers are willing to invest at least one packaging innovation, mainly preferring between the active packaging and the compostable one.