'Improve packaging to reduce food wastage,' says Saha at Make in India week
“Over 31% of the food in the retail supply chain goes uneaten,” said NC Saha, director of Indian Institute of Packaging, at the recently concluded Make in India Week event held in Mumbai. During his speech, Saha attributed this number of food waste to the inept or no packaging of everyday persihable food items in India. "The only way to reduce food wastage is good packaging."
22 Feb 2016 | By Priya Raju
'Improve packaging to reduce food wastage,' says Saha at Make in India week
Saha said, “Over one-third of food produced is never consumed. Still, over 800 million people in the world are unable to meet their daily calorie needs and more than two billion people suffer from nutritional deficiencies.”
Thus, reducing food wastage is the biggest challenge that food processors, retailers and consumers face across the world. “A large part of this will come from just using the amount of food produced and making sure it reaches the masses. This can be achieved through packaging,” informed Saha.
With a turnover of USD 24.6 billion and a growth rate of 13% to 15% annually, the Indian packaging industry is expected to reach USD 32 billion by 2020. At present, the Indian packaging industry is ranked 11th in the world. “It is a known fact that any of the goods among the core sectors will be unable to grow without packaging,” added Saha.
The growth of the food packaging sector has nearly doubled to 13.7% in the last four years. And the Indian packaging industry has been constantly adapting to the changing needs of its consumers. Case in point is active, intelligent and smart packaging, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), retort packaging etc.
“The demand for good quality packaging will offer greater scope for automation in the industry. The 'Make in India' mission is to be considered as a mantra by the packaging industry to become a manufacturing hub in India," concluded Saha.
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