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David Workman, CPI Director General, has responded to today’s Daily Mail front page article “It’s War on Store Waste”.

In his letter, David Workman says: “the article is yet another unjustified attack on the packaging industry, which directly employs some 80,000 people in the UK and is responsible for producing the products which result in one of the lowest supply chain food wastage rates anywhere in the world.

Margins are very tight throughout the whole food and drink supply chain and manufacturers are not going to spend excessive amounts of money on packaging as this erodes those fragile margins.

The whole point of packaging is to ensure that products arrive with the consumer in the pristine state that the manufacturer intended – so reducing waste and hence cost. In areas of fresh food it also helps to extend shelf life – and hence reduce household food waste. Indeed the real scandal is the amount of food and drink that we, as consumers, dispose of each year.

Packaging also helps to promote and differentiate brands and is the means by which manufacturers and retailers can communicate the plethora of information that is required by law to be communicated to the consumers about product content and use.

All packaging companies have worked tirelessly with specifiers to optimise weight and considerable progress has been made over recent years to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment. 

Most forms of packaging are also highly recyclable and in the case of paper and board related materials the recycling rate is over 70% - as is the recycled content of such products.

Shelf ready packaging also helps to reduce costs within the supply chain and in turn helps to keep the price of the total product to a minimum.

At the end of the day the consumer wants quality food at lowest cost but he/she also wants extended shelf life and food safety, and this can only be achieved by the use of appropriate packaging.

By all means let us question the use of packaging but don’t let anyone run away with the idea that by reducing it below an optimum level, or even dispensing with it all together, the consumer, society or the environment is going to be any better off.”