Green-Blue products offer eco-friendly food packaging option

SHAH ALAM: Food vendors now have the option to use environmentally- friendly food packaging materials in their daytoday business activities with the availability of Green- Blue ( GB) packaging product which can be obtained at only 35 sen per unit.

The GB paper packaging technology that combines the concept of biodegradation and resource restoration to support environmental sustainability was developed by Sirim Industrial Biotechnology Research Centre in 2017.

Its Technical and Operations Department general manager Noor Hayati Mokhtar said this eco-friendly food packaging has still not taken off though it had been a year since the GB product was launched.

“Actually, the price of a GB food container is the same as the price of plastic containers often used by food vendors, but are the vendors and consumers aware that these plastic containers are not biodegradable?

“If the traders find that the price is too high, we strongly advise them to purchase the GB food containers through the food industry trade associations, to enable them to get them at 35 sen per unit as these associations would normally order in bulk,” she told Bernama.

She said through a survey conducted by the department it was found that traders were aware of the importance of using environmentally- friendly containers to pack food and as a result, the department came up with the innovation to protect and preserve the environment.

According to Noor Hayati, Sirim had designed eight types of GB containers in various sizes including those with three separate compartments, and all the products have been guaranteed to be leak-proof and are microwave-friendly.

In fact, she said the GB food containers which were not harmful to health and had undergone various durability tests, also received the Good Design 2017 recognition from the Malaysian Design Council.

Noor Hayati added that since July 2017, Sirim produced 2.5 million pieces of GB food containers for free distribution to traders at certain locations, including several local authority areas, to promote environmental conservation efforts.

“During Ramadan last year, the Shah Alam City Council distributed the GB packaging products to Ramadan bazaar traders at Section 17 for free, and this local authority should be commended as this proved their commitment to conserving the environment,” she said.

She also called on more food traders and vendors to immediately switch to the biodegradable packaging products as these containers would disintegrate in three to six months compared to plastic containers which would take years and could cause irreparable environmental damage.