Packaging plans could damage food safety, says industry

Date: 11/04/02

By Laurence Frost

PLANS to make packaging more environmentally friendly will jeopardise food safety and increase waste, companies are warning.

The claims come as MEP Dorette Corbey prepares to unveil proposals to toughen up a Commission plan to increase recycling of used packaging across the EU.

Under the Dutch Socialist's proposal, goods would be allowed onto the market only if the company that made the packaging could show it had taken 'all necessary steps' to minimise environmental impact. The plan, to be discussed by the Parliament's environment committee on Tuesday (16 April), won the full assembly's support in a non-binding vote last November.

But companies that make and use packaging say Corbey's plans could have a damaging effect in other areas - including food safety.

'A lot of the packaged food that's put on sale in our supermarkets could certainly be put in thinner-gauge packaging,' said Julian Carroll of Europen, which represents packaging makers and users including Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.

'But the net result would be that safety and freshness would suffer and products would go off more quickly,' he said. Supermarkets would end up throwing more away, and the bill to the industry run into 'millions of euro'.

But Corbey said her report contains provisions to protect 'essential functions' such as keeping food fresh.

'I'm not saying we should all go to the farm and get our milk ... But there are still choices to make and they should reflect the best environmental options available,' she said.

Plans to make packaging more environmentally friendly will jeopardise food safety and increase waste, companies are warning.