Science of Paper Packaging
Hygiene and Food Safety
Single-use packaging can help prevent food-borne illnesses by shielding the food within its packaging from external contamination and cross-contamination within reuse systems.
Single-use paper packaging can reduce food contamination, ensuring that food arrives intact and unspoiled during transport.
It also plays a role in minimising food waste by controlling portion size and extending shelf life.
Professor David McDowell, Emeritus Professor of Food Studies at Ulster University, indicated that banning single-use packaging without radically altering food hygiene practices would result in increased persistence and circulation of food-borne pathogens.
In a review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Europe’s environment in 2020, the European Environment Agency stated that disposable packaging played a central role in preventing the virus from spreading among the European population.
