How do you find the sweet spot for optimum packaging design and reduce food waste at the same time?

In today’s episode, Jayne Gallagher is in conversation with Nerida Kelton the Vice President Sustainability & Save Food, for the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and the Executive Director for the Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP). It’s no wonder that Nerida is a keen advocate for safe food packaging, bringing a wealth of experience, with 26 years in the industry under her belt.

Specifically, Jayne and Nerida talk about five key functional criteria categories for saving food packaging; these include:

1) Design to contain and protect food.

2) Design to preserve and extend shelf life.

3) Design to provide consumer convenience.

4) Design to communicate with consumers.

5) Design to balance food and packaging waste targets.

Within this conversation you can also hear about:

• The unintended consequences of food waste when reducing packaging as the primary goal. Packaging has a vital role in protecting, containing, preserving, and transporting food to households. Without it, this would not be possible.

• Preservation and extension of shelf life through transportation, distribution and innovative packaging.

• Safe food packaging design guidelines for businesses.

Nerida is extremely proud of the fact that the AIP now lead the way as one of the global packaging experts. Packaging's role in minimising food waste is an important part of improving and promoting global collaboration.

Resources of interest for our listeners include:

Save Food Packaging Criteria and Framework – Final Report

https://endfoodwaste.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2402_Final-Report-121-2024-for-publishing-website.pdf

Rethink Packaging Design: Use Less, Use Longer and Use Again - Article

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rethink-packaging-design-use-less-longer-again-nerida-kelton-maip/

AIP’s commitment to Fighting Food Waste and Food Loss

https://aipack.com.au/fight-food-waste/

Educational resources and training

https://aipack.com.au/education/aip-education-overview/

Joining the AIP

https://aipack.com.au/join-the-aip-link-to-membership-application-pdf/

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at https://www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit https://⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

Do you feel that you’re fighting tooth and nail to secure grant funding to keep your food waste dreams alive?

While tackling the immense problem of food waste, many small businesses and organisations ask where can I get help? Where can I get support to implement ideas that I have? How can I scale? This week, the conversation is centred around these very questions as Jayne Gallagher chats with Prue Saxby, an expert in grants from Indigo Gold, who has helped many businesses get funding to overcome problems such as food waste. Tune in as Jayne and Prue talk about:

• The most common mistakes when it comes to grant writing and applications and how to solve them and five key points to consider.

• Creating a grant wish list and incorporating strategic planning into your approach. This planning demonstrates to funders that your project is well-thought-out and aligns with long-term goals.

• How to ensure that your project fits the grant’s criteria. Don’t try to force your project into a grant that isn’t a good match.

For food businesses there are many grants available, specifically around food waste, recycling, packaging, manufacturing and export.

Prue offers multiple resources to aid in the grant application process, including:

Free Grant List: A comprehensive list of available grants updated monthly. Sign up at https://indigogold.com.au/free-grant-list-weekly-tips/

Consultation Services: From one-hour sessions to full application support. Apply at https://indigogold.com.au/mentoring-session/

Grant Writing Academy - an annual program which gives you the clarity and confidence to write high quality grant applications.

https://indigogold.com.au/grant-writing-academy/

Facebook Group: A community for asking questions and getting tips.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/grantwritingacademy?_ga=2.196029486.362867297.1724125153-1448221473.1723632395

Applying for grants doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right approach, preparation, and support, you can significantly increase your chances of getting into the yes pile.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

This episode features our CEO check-in with Dr. Steven Lapidge, of End Food Waste Australia. Dr Lapidge shared insights and highlights from the 2024 National Food Waste Summit held in Melbourne, detailing key actions and takeaways for combating food waste. With over 300 people who attended the event, including international guests, Steve shares his top 10 takeaway messages from the conference. These include:

1. The 16-page 2024 to 2030 strategic business plan. Find out more at https://endfoodwaste.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EFWA-Strategic-Business-2024-2030.pdf
2. Food donation tax incentives which have recently been introduced to the Australian senate, as talked about by Brianna Casey from Foodbank Australia. Information available at https://www.foodbank.org.au/ and https://endfoodwaste.com.au/media-release-revolutionary-national-food-donation-tax-incentive-introduced-to-australian-parliament/
3. Target, Measure and Act. A mantra to live by to assist in the reduction of food waste.
4. Mandatory food waste reporting as spoken about by Jolanda Dings from Lamb Western EMEA, see https://lambweston.eu/emea.
5. Edwina Beveridge from Blantyre Farms, who operates the first piggery to be certified under the Renewable Energy Target with an accredited biogas electricity generation system sourced from agricultural waste.
6. The on-the-job PhD program with KPMG and Central Queensland University, as heard in episode 13 and the students who are currently within the program. Listen to our recent episode here https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/honey-and-fox/episodes/S2E13a-Beyond-Academia-with-Tangerine-Holt--Olav-Muurlink--Hannah-Churton-and-Stephanie-Bayancela-e2mmevj and find out more about the program at https://endfoodwaste.com.au/research-and-development/industry-phd-program/
7. Discussion about the implementation of the Nationwide Consumer Behaviour Change Campaign.
8. Encouraging teamwork and collaboration with participants across the summit.
9. How none of us can do it alone with Ian Opperman stating we don’t get anywhere if we don’t care.
10. Celebrations of contributions to reducing food waste with the inaugural Food Waste Action Awards. Winners included:

• Sodexo who collected the Industry Impact Award.
• Australian Institute of Packaging and RMIT University with the collaboration award.
• Mark Boulet of Monash University gained the Research Award.
• Simplot with the Foodbank Australia Award.

Congratulations to End Food Waste Australia for another successful summit. We look forward to supporting and hearing more about future incentives and involvement in fighting the fight against food waste.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

In Australia, addressing the issue of food waste is considered a complex problem that involves constantly shifting environmental, economic, social, and ethical dynamics. To effectively tackle these interdisciplinary challenges, researchers must take a comprehensive approach to collecting evidence.

However, while academic work has evolved greatly in the past six decades, the doctoral curriculum has remained largely unchanged. As a result, graduates need to possess adaptability and ingenuity to lead projects in a rapidly changing environment, bridging the gap between traditional thesis-based research and the needs of industry and government.

This week on the Food Waste Matters Podcast, we bring you three separate episodes, spread over three days, with the academics who are in amongst both research and industry under the Future Leaders Program.

In these episodes, you will hear from the following voices and their topics of research:

Part One:

• Tangerine Holt, KPMG

• Olav Muurlink, CQU

• Hannah Churton, QUT

  Policy, regulation and legislation barriers, opportunities and recommendations to maximise utilisation of food waste and food bi-products

• Stephanie Bayancela, University of Adelaide

  Transition towards circular economy in Australian agrifood supply chains

Part Two:

• Hector Vera Wood, UQ

  Developing innovative formulations of biobased controlled release fertilisers

• Mary Addae, UQ

  Cost benefit analysis of compost use in Australia

Part Three:

• Shanmugam Alagappan, UQ

  Optimising and industrialising black soldier fly (BSF) production - redirecting food waste to livestock feed production using insects

• Alexis Chung, Curtin University

  Finding opportunity to use abalone organs to use for functional human outcomes

• Melinda Nguyen, University of Adelaide

  Development of advanced materials for food packaging

To find out more about the Future Leaders Program and End Food Waste Australia, please visit ⁠https://endfoodwaste.com.au/projects/future-leaders-program⁠.

A big thank you to all the students for their time and dedication in fighting against food waste.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

In Australia, addressing the issue of food waste is considered a complex problem that involves constantly shifting environmental, economic, social, and ethical dynamics. To effectively tackle these interdisciplinary challenges, researchers must take a comprehensive approach to collecting evidence.

However, while academic work has evolved greatly in the past six decades, the doctoral curriculum has remained largely unchanged. As a result, graduates need to possess adaptability and ingenuity to lead projects in a rapidly changing environment, bridging the gap between traditional thesis-based research and the needs of industry and government.

This week on the Food Waste Matters Podcast, we bring you three separate episodes, spread over three days, with the academics who are in amongst both research and industry under the Future Leaders Program.

In these episodes, you will hear from the following voices and their topics of research:

Part One:

• Tangerine Holt, KPMG

• Olav Muurlink, CQU

• Hannah Churton, QUT

  Policy, regulation and legislation barriers, opportunities and recommendations to maximise utilisation of food waste and food bi-products

• Stephanie Bayancela, University of Adelaide

  Transition towards circular economy in Australian agrifood supply chains

Part Two:

• Hector Vera Wood, UQ

  Developing innovative formulations of biobased controlled release fertilisers

• Mary Addae, UQ

  Cost benefit analysis of compost use in Australia

Part Three:

• Shanmugam Alagappan, UQ

  Optimising and industrialising black soldier fly (BSF) production - redirecting food waste to livestock feed production using insects

• Alexis Chung, Curtin University

  Finding opportunity to use abalone organs to use for functional human outcomes

• Melinda Nguyen, University of Adelaide

  Development of advanced materials for food packaging

To find out more about the Future Leaders Program and End Food Waste Australia, please visit https://endfoodwaste.com.au/projects/future-leaders-program.

A big thank you to all the students for their time and dedication in fighting against food waste.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

In Australia, addressing the issue of food waste is considered a complex problem that involves constantly shifting environmental, economic, social, and ethical dynamics. To effectively tackle these interdisciplinary challenges, researchers must take a comprehensive approach to collecting evidence.

However, while academic work has evolved greatly in the past six decades, the doctoral curriculum has remained largely unchanged. As a result, graduates need to possess adaptability and ingenuity to lead projects in a rapidly changing environment, bridging the gap between traditional thesis-based research and the needs of industry and government.

This week on the Food Waste Matters Podcast, we bring you three separate episodes, spread over three days, with the academics who are in amongst both research and industry under the Future Leaders Program.

In these episodes, you will hear from the following voices and their topics of research:

Part One:

• Tangerine Holt, KPMG

• Olav Muurlink, CQU

• Hannah Churton, QUT

  Policy, regulation and legislation barriers, opportunities and recommendations to maximise utilisation of food waste and food bi-products

• Stephanie Bayancela, University of Adelaide

  Transition towards circular economy in Australian agrifood supply chains

Part Two:

• Hector Vera Wood, UQ

  Developing innovative formulations of biobased controlled release fertilisers

• Mary Addae, UQ

  Cost benefit analysis of compost use in Australia

Part Three:

• Shanmugam Alagappan, UQ

  Optimising and industrialising black soldier fly (BSF) production - redirecting food waste to livestock feed production using insects

• Alexis Chung, Curtin University

  Finding opportunity to use abalone organs to use for functional human outcomes

• Melinda Nguyen, University of Adelaide

  Development of advanced materials for food packaging

To find out more about the Future Leaders Program and End Food Waste Australia, please visit ⁠⁠https://endfoodwaste.com.au/projects/future-leaders-program⁠⁠.

A big thank you to all the students for their time and dedication in fighting against food waste.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

When it comes to fighting the fight against food waste, understanding the data behind waste problems is half the solution.

In this episode of Food Waste Matters, Dr Joanne Freeman joins Simon Lockrey from RMIT and Victor Barichello from Empauer. The two have collaborated and created a tool called DIRECT. Businesses can use this tool to measure data and give a comprehensive view of their waste. DIRECT taps into various types of data such as inventory, financial records, and material flows. It then produces efficiency measures for businesses by transforming a basic spreadsheet into a powerful, user-friendly piece of software. Find out more in this episode as they talk about:

• By showing the true cost of waste, including indirect costs like labor, energy, and rent, businesses can realise the financial impact of waste as a whole.

• A case study where DIRECT revealed a much higher true cost of waste than estimated, showcasing the tool’s impact and how much can go unseen.

• Measurement of food loss and waste and the true cost of waste, including indirect costs related to labour, energy, rent and other costs that are apportioned to the material that was wasted.

To learn more about Empauer and DIRECT please visit www.empauer.com.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.

What happens when a date lover and a doctor meet and find a shared passion for reducing food waste?

After the deterioration of water quality and the onset of the millennium drought in the early '90s, Dave Reilly pivoted from growing vegetables to wine grapes and eventually to date palms due to their high salt tolerance - a decision that would significantly shape their future endeavours. Dave recounts how they began in 1998 when he used offshoots from historic trees and recognised cultivars for better market possibilities. Listen in to this fascinating conversation as Jo and Dave talk about how he is turning their not-so-perfect dates into sustainable products. Within Dave’s story, you can hear about:

• How he undertook rigorous training and incorporated worldwide knowledge in tissue culture propagation, even setting up their own micropropagation facility.

• The importance of Dave securing an Australian Nuffield Farming Scholarship, allowing him to travel and explore processing methods for dates. This exposure led to their investment in date-paste production equipment. Date paste, commonly used as an ingredient in snack bars and baked goods, became a lucrative avenue for these "second-grade" dates.

• Challenges such as fruit fly restrictions impacting market access, especially to Adelaide and Perth.

Gurra Down Dates is not just about growing a niche crop but fundamentally transforming how we perceive and utilise food waste. As Dave concluded by expressing a keen outlook for future prospects, it’s evident that this innovative approach will inspire many into the future of the fight against food waste.

For more information on Gurra Down Dates, visit their website at www.gurradowns.com.au. To keep the conversation on food waste going, or if you have inspiring stories to share, subscribe and reach out to Food Waste Matters at foodwastematters@honeyandfox.com.au. Every bit counts in the fight against food waste. Let's be part of the solution.

A big thank you to Dave Reilly for his time and a big thank you for joining us for this episode.

This podcast is brought to you by Honey & Fox, whose passion is food and the people who produce it. Honey & Fox works with fishers, farmers and small food businesses to help them find and sell to their perfect customers – people who will buy without questioning the price. Find out more at www.honeyandfox.com.au.

This podcast is supported by End Food Waste Australia, which is leading impactful and research-informed food waste actions. To learn more about how they are working toward a more sustainable future, please visit ⁠www.endfoodwaste.com.au⁠.