Food companies should know what’s in the packaging. Here’s why
This guest blog is provided by the Environmental Defense Fund,
EDF & Business blogs, written by Tom Neltner and Michelle Mauthe Harvey
Recently, we recommended a series of steps that companies can take to address EDF’s top-ten list of chemicals of concern in the food supply, including setting new packaging specifications, verifying compliance, and tracking progress. Perhaps surprisingly, one action you haven’t seen us recommend – until now – is one of the key tenets of EDF’s Five Pillars of Safer Food Leadership: supply chain transparency, in this case into chemical additives to both raw material and final paper and plastic packaging.
The reason why is simple—the packaging supply chain can be especially opaque, and we strive to minimize frustrations when we make suggestions. People may make commitments about what’s not in their packaging, but they often seem unwilling or unable to share what is being used. As companies react to concerns about sustainability and recyclability of packaging, the opaqueness is a framework that can lead to unnecessary scrambling when questions…