Kraft heinz spent eight years and $1.2 million designing and engineering a fully recyclable closure with Berry Global for its ketchup packaging. Why? Consumer preferences want more recycled packaging and less waste. Besides package recycling, brands are also focused on reducing food waste, water conservation and other ways to optimize operations with technology.
Food waste is a relatively new challenge for food manufacturers, but solutions lead back to common themes in manufacturing: continuous improvement and removing inefficiencies. The bottom line is that food waste is an inefficiency but a complex one interconnected with many components within the food industry ecosystem—more on that later.