Eco-friendly packaging for food on the go urged

Small and medium enterprises in the food sector are encouraged to utilize environmentally friendly packaging materials for on-the-go products to meet the needs of both the local and export markets.

Edna Andes-Palad, consultant at Department of Trade and Industry- CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), said they need to package food products that fit the needs of busy individuals.

“Food packaging is going into on the go. The trend now is, father and mother in a family are both working. When they come home from work, they are already exhausted. They buy from stores food with portion size that their family can eat at once,” she explained.

Andes-Palad said on-thego food dishes are marketed such as in tetra pak, or vacuum packaging which is microwaveable.

“We are doing packaging like potato starch for chocolate (products). We innovate to avoid the use of many plastics... because until now, the number of people in the Philippines is as many as the number of plastics that need to be eliminated,” she noted.

Andes-Palad cited other examples of environmentally friendly packaging materials, including beeswax, cassava starch using paper as base material, banana stalk which is used as plate, and reusable bottles.

She said that more people are now concerned about the environment.

Andes-Palad, also an exporter, said eco-friendly packaging materials for on-the-go food products are in-demand in the Philippines and even abroad, particularly in the United States, Europe and China.

Andes-Palad was the speaker for the recent capacity building seminar of ASPIRE, a collaborative project of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry that aims to integrate market development support services to farmers, fishersfolks and agribusiness entrepreneurs.