Innovations Advance Sustainability In Food And Beverage Packaging

By Sam Lewis

To meet the demands of consumers, food and beverage manufacturers must dream up new ways to boost sustainability in packaging… even if the solution is less than realistic

Food and beverage makers are constantly adapting products, and the products’ packaging, to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers. Some of these changes include creating more aesthetically pleasing cartons, developing packages that extend the shelf life of products, and even making wrapping and casings made from more sustainable materials. Some of these innovations, while designed with the best intentions, are not practical in real-life situations. Below are five new packaging solutions that are upping the sustainability ante.

The Easy Wine Glass

Feeling like a glass or two of wine, but don’t want to crack open an entire bottle? The Easy Wine Glass Company has just the solution. The company has created wine in individual, 187 ml sealed glasses with the claims it makes, “The only ready-to-drink packaging for wine.” While the individual glasses are actually made from recycled plastic, this innovation is more about portion control and convenience rather than sustainability.

AstraPaq

Another notable food and beverage packaging innovation comes from the wine and spirits sector. While wine in a box has been popular for more than a decade, AstraPaq has made a couple improvements to this aging idea. First, by eliminating the box, leaving only the pouch, fewer materials are used in packaging. The pouch is made from multiple layers, improving the package’s durability. Finally, the packaging serves as a blank canvas for branding around the entire surface. AstraPaq is even going as far to say, “We are revolutionizing the wine and spirits industry. Never before has there been a package so sleek, so marketable, so efficient, or so profitable.”

The Coca-Cola Ice Bottle

On the surface, this seems like the most sustainable packaging to ever come about. However, when thinking about what is necessary to create the bottle, plus the lack of practicality involved — imagine trying to slowly enjoy a soda in an ice bottle on a hot day — this innovation becomes less and less appealing. Still, Coca-Cola went ahead and launched the idea in Colombia last summer, despite the facts of creating the bottle reveal it was more of a marketing gimmick than a sustainability measure.

The ice bottles are made by pouring filtered water into silicone molds and freezing it at temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit. While the final product may produce zero waste, creating, refrigerating, and transporting the product uses an incredible amount of energy.

Edible Casing

Stonyfield’s Frozen Yogurt Pearls have the distinction of being the first food product to utilize a completely edible wrapper thanks to WikiFoods’ new edible casing. According to WikiFoods, “Our technology protects the wrapped food or beverage without exposing it to unnatural materials or chemicals while also delivering benefits of health, convenience, and a food experience like nothing else.” Stonyfield knows this idea might be a little too futuristic for consumers and most consumers will undoubtedly doubt the hygienic characteristics of food without a wrapper, so the company will be selling the frozen yogurt balls in recyclable plastic bags in retail locations. There is also the problem of the product not containing a label, which the next packaging innovation addresses.

Ooho

The winner of the Lexus Design Award, Ooho offers a unique alternative to plastic bottles. Through a process called spherification, water — and really any other liquid — is able to be contained inside a jellylike skin that keeps the water clean while allowing a label to be placed within membrane layers. Water can be packaged by freezing it in various amounts and shapes and then putting it through the spherification process. The final container costs roughly two cents per unit and is not only biodegradable, it’s edible.