Need to Know

• In a September 29 webinar organized by WPO, experts explained why sustainable packaging decisions must balance material reduction and recyclability with food protection, safety, shelf life, and the prevention of food loss and waste
• SusPAM, developed by Wageningen University and Research with support from Foundation FSSC and UNIDO, provides a holistic framework for evaluating packaging interventions across environmental, economic, social, logistical, food safety, and food loss and waste considerations
• Effective packaging solutions must be evidence-based and account for the broader food system, including local infrastructure, economic feasibility, consumer needs, and end-of-life pathways

The scale of the challenge is significant. According to the Food Waste Index Report, In 2022, approximately 1.05 billion tons of food were wasted at the retail, foodservice, and household levels, which is equivalent to 19 percent of food available to consumers. This is in addition to the estimated 13 percent of food lost between post-harvest handling and retail. Together, food loss and waste generate an estimated 8–10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

For the packaging sector, this creates an important responsibility. Efforts to lower packaging impacts through material reduction, redesign, reuse, or improved recyclability should not unintentionally compromise food protection, shelf life, or usability. A pack that uses fewer resources but increases product damage, spoilage, or avoidable discard may deliver a poorer overall sustainability outcome.

Addressing the Food and Packaging Waste Paradox

As the 2026 IDAFLW observance focuses on the transformative potential of reducing food loss and waste, the SusPAM webinar brought attention to the relationship between food waste and packaging waste.

Packaging’s primary role is functional: it must contain, protect, preserve, and transport food throughout the value chain, from production through use in the home. Without adequate protection, food may be damaged, spoiled, or lost before it ever reaches the consumer.

This does not mean that material efficiency, reuse, or recyclability are unimportant. It means that decisions must consider the full food value chain. A packaging format that appears preferable because it uses less material may be more susceptible to damage, provide insufficient barrier performance, shorten shelf life, or make food harder to store after opening. As a result, more edible food may be discarded.

Nerida Kelton, Vice President of Sustainability and Save Food at WPO, described the challenge as striking the right balance between food and packaging waste targets.

“WPO is proud to support the SusPAM Methodology and intervention tool to help guide packaging technologists across the globe in finding the balance between functionality, commercial reality, consumer demands, food protection, and environmental criteria,” she said.

WPO’s next step is to work through its global membership to build understanding of the methodology and support its application at grassroots level. This includes helping WPO members engage governments and communities to develop food-system packaging interventions that enhance sustainability by reducing food loss and waste.

SusPAM: Assessing Packaging in Context

The intrinsic complexity of packaging sustainability makes it difficult to assess interventions using a single measure. Sustainable packaging solutions must account for interactions among environmental, economic, social, and logistical factors, including resource use, product quality, food safety, food loss and waste, consumer acceptance, infrastructure compatibility, and end-of-life management. Wageningen University and Research developed SusPAM, with sponsorship from Foundation FSSC through its partnership with UNIDO, to support that broader assessment.

SusPAM developer Fátima Pereira da Silva, M.Sc., who is a Senior Project Manager and Researcher at Wageningen University and Research, explains that the methodology provides a structured, accessible framework to assess whether a packaging intervention can enhance sustainability, support a positive business case, and be implemented in practice.

SusPAM is intended primarily for the design phase, enabling stakeholders to assess potential packaging interventions or investments before implementation. It can also be used to examine the sustainability impact of existing packaging interventions or the consequences of having no packaging solution in a current situation.

SusPAM comprises five parts and eight steps for an objective, holistic assessment of packaging interventions in food systems in low- and middle-income countries.

“Only by considering the full range of functions, interactions and stakeholder interests is it possible to evaluate trade-offs and identify solutions that deliver the greatest overall sustainability benefits,” said Ms. Pereira da Silva.

The central principle is that packaging does not exist independently of the food it protects or the system in which it is used. Its impact depends on the food product, the supply chain, local infrastructure, the risk of loss and waste, consumer use, economic feasibility, and the available end-of-life pathways.

Evidence Over Assumptions

Eelke Westra, M.Sc., Partnership Manager at Wageningen University and Research, noted that food packaging decisions are too often evaluated through a single lens, such as carbon footprint, recyclability, or cost, while overlooking wider food system impacts.

In practice, packaging can influence food safety, product quality, food loss and waste, business performance, and implementation feasibility at the same time. A multi-dimensional assessment is therefore essential.

For example, an intervention that uses more packaging material may still deliver a net positive sustainability outcome if it meaningfully extends shelf life or prevents food losses. Conversely, a potentially sustainable solution may fail to create impact if it is not economically viable or cannot be effectively implemented within a local food system.

“The future of sustainable packaging lies not in optimizing the package itself, but in maximizing its positive contribution to the food system,” said Mr. Westra.

SusPAM is intended to help stakeholders understand such trade-offs and make more holistic, evidence-based decisions across the food value chain.

Scaling Practical Solutions

For UNIDO, the challenge is not only to identify better packaging interventions but also to ensure they are feasible and scalable across very different food system and market conditions.

Ali Badarneh, M.S., Chief of UNIDO’s Food Security and Food Systems Unit, stressed that sustainable packaging cannot be based on one-size-fits-all solutions. Packaging must protect food, reduce food loss and waste, and improve food safety, while remaining affordable, accessible, environmentally responsible, and feasible for businesses, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Scaling these interventions requires stronger local packaging industries and technical capacity, better access to finance, and solutions that fit existing infrastructure, logistics, and waste-management systems. It also requires collaboration among government, industry, research institutions, and development partners.

“SusPAM helps move the packaging debate from assumptions to evidence,” said Mr. Badarneh. “By assessing packaging within the broader food system, it enables more informed decisions that reduce food loss and waste while advancing sustainability.”

From Assessment to Action

Foundation FSSC supported the development of SusPAM through its partnership with UNIDO because the methodology aligns with its wider commitment to enabling resilient food systems that provide access to safe food for everyone, everywhere. 

Packaging plays a critical role in protecting food, preserving quality, maintaining or extending shelf life, and reducing losses throughout the value chain. FSSC’s work on food loss and waste reduction therefore extends to the packaging design decisions organizations make. 

FSSC 22000 Version 6 introduced requirements for organizations to establish policies and objectives to address food loss and waste. In Version 7, FSSC expanded this approach by incorporating elements of the Save Food Packaging design principles for organizations that design primary food packaging and packaging materials.

These requirements recognize that packaging decisions can influence product protection, shelf life, food safety, and, ultimately, the prevention of food loss and waste. Aldin Hilbrands, M.Sc., CEO of Foundation FSSC, said SusPAM complements this direction by giving packaging manufacturers and other stakeholders a structured way to assess proposed packaging interventions during the design phase while considering their effects on people, planet, and prosperity. 

“Packaging is not separate from the food it protects. By considering food protection, shelf life and food loss and waste alongside wider sustainability impacts, organizations can make packaging decisions that create value across the food system,” Said Mr. Hilbrands.

A Shared Agenda

The SusPAM discussion brought WPO, UNIDO, Wageningen University and Research, and Foundation FSSC together around a shared systems challenge: how to make packaging decisions that protect food, reduce avoidable food loss and waste, and support broader sustainability goals.

No single organization or single packaging metric can resolve that challenge alone. Progress requires collaboration between research, international development, packaging professionals, and food-chain organizations, supported by practical tools and evidence-based decision-making.

Readers will soon be able to view the SusPAM webinar recording on the WPO website and can already learn how FSSC 22000 Version 7 links food protection with packaging design. Together, these efforts point towards the same objective: packaging designed not only to use resources responsibly but also to help ensure the food it protects reaches people safely and is not needlessly lost or wasted.