The packaging issue has turned into a dilemma for the produce industry in general and the organic segment in particular.
The trend in recent years has been toward sustainable, recyclable packaging for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Until COVID-19 hit, more and more consumers and, in turn, retailers, were clamoring for elimination of single-use plastic and major reductions of any kind of packaging.
With the pandemic, consumers have focused more on their personal safety and less on sustainability and seem to have taken a liking once again to wrapped produce.
Shoppers don’t want to pick up apples or tomatoes that have been pawed by countless others.
The quandary has been even more pronounced for the organic industry, which seems synonymous with sustainability, but where suppliers and retailers often prefer wrapped produce to distinguish the premium-priced contents from conventional counterparts and ensure an accurate ring at the check stand.
Produce suppliers point out that packaging of any product — conventional or organic — allows for easier handling and merchandising and can help keep product fresh.
Andrew Walsh, CEO at Morro Bay, Calif.-based Vida Fresh, hopes the swing back toward packaging is only temporary, especially for the organic industry.
“We are very disappointed by the amount of packaging used in the organic produce sector,” he said.
“We understand that in the short term, until this pandemic settles, there may be a need for more plastic and more packaging to satisfy the consumer’s concerns,” Walsh said.
“But we (hope) that once people truly understand the nature of this disease and understand that the communicability of fresh produce is minimal, that the industry will start to move back toward reduced use of (packaging).”
Over the years, Addie Pobst, organic integrity and logistics coordinator for Viva Tierra Organic Inc., Sedro-Woolley, Wash., has seen a “push-pull” from consumers and retailers who want produce suppliers to be environmentally sustainable and remove plastic from the waste stream, “but at the same time say they like the convenience of having fruit prepackaged in a bag.”
Pobst pointed out that even if shoppers buy bulk produce, they place it a bag they take from those rollers in the produce display.
“The pre-bagged apples don’t really come with a more plasticky footprint,” she said.
The more sustainable option would be for consumers to bring their own reusable produce bags from home, but that creates sanitation issues, she said.
“As far as taking the retail bagged apple out of production, that is not something (the industry) can do very soon,” Pobst said.
“The entire industry is looking for the most sustainable option for packaging,” said Tim Youmans, executive vice president of sales for Root 24 Farms, a Moxee, Wash.-based blueberry marketer.
That might include options like using highly recyclable plastics with a closed-loop system or using biodegradable or compostable packaging.
Besides the sustainability factor, packaging has to meet the need of consumers to view the contents and maintain quality, he said.
That’s especially important for organic produce, for which consumers are paying a 10%-30% premium.
“They want it all to be usable,” he said.
Suppliers seem to be moving in the right direction in their quest for sustainable packaging.
Vida Fresh, starting in December, plans to use punnets made with completely recycled cardboard and plant-based film for its organic strawberries, Walsh said.
“All we’re doing is taking existing product and recycling it and using it again,” he said. “That’s got to be better than starting from scratch.”
The cardboard and plant-based film will make the package fully compostable — “like regular food scraps” — he said.
At Viva Tierra, “We’re always on the lookout for ways to enhance the sustainability of our packaging,” Pobst said.
One move in that direction was redesigning its boxes so that more can be stacked on a pallet, creating more freight efficiencies.
Root 24 Farms uses the How2Recycle label created by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition on its clamshell containers and on the corrugated trays the clamshells come in, Youmans said.
The label provides information that the consumer would not normally have, telling how to handle the packaging after they’re finished with it,” he said.
“Many consumers don’t know what the recycle logo means or what to do,” he said. “How2Recycle provides that information in the label.”
The industry has a long way to go before a real solution to the packaging dilemma is found, Youmans said.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to try to get us across the goal line.”
Related Content:
Industries work to educate consumers on recycling old packages
UPDATED: Veg-Fresh Farms packaging contains pathogen fighters
