Awards Presented at SWOP Recognize Packaging Designed to Reduce Food Waste

As reported by Packaging Strategies in July, the award-winning Bump Cap allows the safe extension of expiry dates from the current overcautious model. (Courtesy of Mimica)

The first round of winners of the ‘Sustainability Design & Save Food Design Awards’ were recently announced at the Shanghai World of Packaging (SWOP) trade exhibition in partnership with Messe Düsseldorf, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and WPO (World Packaging Organisation). The judges for the awards also came from these organizations.

The new award is a product of the SAVE FOOD Initiative – jointly founded by Messe Düsseldorf, interpack trade exhibition and FAO – which aims to create global networks, awareness, programs and competitions that can help fight food loss and waste and have a collaborative voice for this important topic.

Thomas Dohse, Director of interpack alliance, said, “The SAVE FOOD Initiative addresses one of the most pressing challenges facing our world: food loss and waste. The packaging and processing industries have a key role to play in reducing this loss and waste. As members of this industry, we are playing an active role. Together with our partners in the SAVE FOOD Initiative, we are working tirelessly to save and preserve food and thereby make a positive impact on the environment.”

Luciana Pellegrino, WPO President, said, “The invitation to be part of this new competition was an honor to WPO, and we are quite sure WPO members in China, CPF and CEPI, which participated in the online judging, gave a valuable contribution. It is worth reminding that WPO is a longtime partner of Messe Düsseldorf, especially at interpack, and has contributed in other projects related to the SAVE FOOD Initiative. WPO is also a long-time partner of other institutions that supported the award, like Unido.”

Nerida Kelton is Vice President of Sustainability & Save Food and also represented WPO in the judging process.

“I take this moment to congratulate all the winners for their packaging designs and innovations,” Kelton said. “It was wonderful to see the number of entries for the first round of the new awards program and especially in the area of Save Food Packaging design. The Bump Cap is a wonderful example of how an innovative and intuitive closure can make such a difference to minimize food waste. In the Sustainability Design Award category, the gold went to Bizerba for their smart slicer, which has been designed to have a lower carbon footprint and reduce the energy consumption of the machinery.”

2023 SAVE FOOD DESIGN AWARD winners are:

Gold - United Caps for the Bump Cap and innovative closure
Silver - KAIDA Group for the High Barrier Mono-material Reopenable Food Packaging Bag
Bronze - Multivac for the TVI GMS 400 Compact portioning machine

2023 SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN AWARD winners are:

Gold – Bizerba for the Smarter Slicer
Silver - Dookoo Intelligent for the PE Film Packaging Machine-VSI-820 Kim Qinbao
Bronze - Herrmann Ultrasonics for the TSM Top Seal Modules

About WPO

The World Packaging Organisation (WPO) is a non-profit, non-governmental, international federation of packaging institutes, associations, federations and other interested parties, including corporations and trade associations. Its mission is “Better quality of life through better packaging for more people.” WPO joins 84 members representing 63 countries.

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