Ruby Chan AAIP, PhD Candidate, School of Design RMIT University, recently had some of her research published that focusses on improving packaging to help reduce household food waste.
Part of the solution is to encourage greater collaboration between the research community and industry; the goal of this current article is to present information that would assist. She compared packaging-related household food waste solutions recommended in the academic literature (specifically, primary consumer empirical studies) to those identified from food/beverage–packaging industry articles.
The review covered a 16-year timespan from 2006–2021, globally, to collect data on packaging functions/formats, materials, and food groups. What she observed is a ‘research–practice gap’, where research recommendations differ from industry developments. One finding is that, while most of the packaging functions/formats suggested in the empirical literature have precedence for commercial availability, many packaging solutions developed by industry are not acknowledged in the empirical literature. Other findings are presented in the article.
To help provide solutions to address this ‘research–practice gap’, Ruby presented her research findings in a way that is conducive to helping both researchers and industry to identify areas of relevance to act upon. As such, she provides recommendations on combining the unique contributions of researchers and industry to create a fuller picture of HFW, to help facilitate more effective implementation of packaging solutions to help reduce HFW.
Click here to view the article…