Poultry brand ‘The Bare Bird’ together with Sealed Air’s CRYOVAC brand ‘Darfresh on Tray’ packaging received the “Packaging that Saves Food” – gold star award from the 2020 WorldStar packaging awards, given annually by the World Packaging Organisation. As Australia addresses food waste challenges to meet the National Food Waste Strategy 2030 targets, what’s there to learn from companies that have gotten it right?
There’s a reason the best of the best take home shiny gold trophies. It’s because from farm to plate, the entire product is designed with sustainability in mind. While industries shift to drive a circular plastics economy, food waste remains a challenge for all. Each year, it is estimated Australian’s generate almost 300 kilograms of food waste per person.
Growing from strength to strength, ‘The Bare Bird’ put another feather in its cap taking home the gold international World Star award for “Packaging that Saves Food”. The 100 per cent antibiotic-free, vegetarian fed, free range chicken offers consumers a healthy chicken choice and its pack, CRYOVAC brand Darfresh on Tray manufactured by Sealed Air offers consumers extended freshness.
“Reducing waste, driving sustainability and being resource savvy isn’t a new thing, it has been a central focus of our family-owned business since inception,” said John Hazeldene, director of Hazeldene’s Chicken Farms, which supplies chicken sold under the The Bare Bird name. “We’re delighted for The Bare Bird brand to be acknowledged on a global scale.”
Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm is a poultry producer and processor located near Bendigo, in central Victoria and has been part of the industry for more than 60 years.
While poultry is less resource intensive than other proteins, it still requires significant volume of water.
“We have invested heavily in water saving and water recycling programs across our facility and achieve best-in-class water usage rates per bird for poultry,” said Hazeldene. “It’s great that packaging solutions that extend shelf life also serve to protect resources like water from going to waste.”
Beyond reducing food waste, the CRYOVAC brand Darfresh on Tray packaging system is a zero-scrap packaging platform, which eliminates plastic processing scrap by 40 per cent. For a typical mid-sized processor producing 30,000 packs per week, this would avoid 3,070 kg being sent to landfill each year.
“The zero-waste Darfresh on Tray system is a great solution that aligns with our environmental goals,” said Hazeldene.
Achieving a 25 per cent improvement in shelf life has been a win not only for The Bare Bird but also retailers and consumers.
Growth in production and demand for free range chicken meat has been particularly strong over the past five years (approximately 15 per cent of the total market) and this trend is expected to continue (according to AgriFutures Australia), so reducing resource waste is important for a more sustainable and efficient end to end supply chain. Longer shelf life enables wider product distribution and better market access. This year, Hazeldene’s is looking to take The Bare Bird to international markets.
With food waste having an impact on retailer’s bottom line, shelf life now factors more prominently into retailers’ product and purchasing decisions. As with retailers, food waste is also an important concern and purchase consideration for consumers, who contribute to more than half of our nation’s food waste problem.
“Around the world we’re working to be better than we were yesterday, and in times as extreme as this pandemic, the focus on bettering community health ranks high,” said Alan Adams, Sealed Air’s regional sustainability director. “Failures in our food supply chain will compromise food safety and that also means recalls, compromised confidence in our food supply chain and compromised community health. Packaging’s ability to enable food safety and reduce waste makes it an everyday super hero. It’s an essential material and consumers would benefit in knowing this.
“Consumers are the biggest contributors to our nation’s food waste, so with focused activities around consumer behaviors, we can collectively make a difference and we know education is the hook.
“With concerted efforts in these areas, together with our National Food Waste Strategy to halve food waste by 2030, a less wasteful supply chain is a requirement. It’s a time to undo waste and the beauty is we can all contribute to making a difference. Through education and a willingness to change often lazy, wasteful food habits, reducing the aforementioned 300kg per capita (annual) contribution to food waste should be front of mind for every single Australian. That’s how we’ll reduce waste and leave our world better than we found it.”
Four ways to less waste
It starts by connecting with your audience and sharing a common goal
COVID-19 has shown what’s possible when communities work together for a common goal. On pack, in-store and social media platforms can make a huge impact. How many of your consumers are aware of food waste and its impact on global warming? Teaching consumers is important and in doing so, not only are you helping consumers learn more about avoiding food waste, but also increasing brand awareness for your retail product. Callouts such as “sealed for freshness” is a good example currently witnessed across some retail channels but we need more.
Avoid confusion with easy to understand on pack dates
Through a better understanding of when food is actually no longer safe to eat, as opposed to its ‘packed on’ dates, consumers are likely to make better food choices rather than disposing it prematurely. There are many examples of packaging solutions where it’s hard for consumers to even find these dates. For packaging providers and retailers, a quick fix such as more prominent date placement can enable better food management and The Bare Bird is a great example we can learn from.
Keep it chilled
The importance of temperature cannot be discounted. It plays a major role in food safety and freshness. Clear guidelines on how to store and freeze products will help consumers with efficient meal planning all while diverting less waste to the kitchen bin. Solutions like CRYOVAC brand Darfresh vacuum skin packaging are convenient freezer-ready options, but how many consumers know this if you’re not telling them?
Portion perfect
Portioned packs provide for accurate faster and less wasteful meals. They are ideal for households that prefer convenience, as well as the new generation of home cooks who have appeared in the COVID-19 crisis.