Smart Packaging: Reducing Waste and Enhancing Food Safety
When we think about food, our attention usually goes to flavor, freshness, or maybe price. Yet, there’s an unsung hero that quietly protects what we eat: packaging. Once seen only as a wrapper or container, packaging is now evolving into something far more dynamic. Through advances in food engineering, we’re entering an era of smart packaging —innovations that extend freshness, improve safety, and cut down on unnecessary waste. Why Packaging Isn’t Just Packaging Anymore Decades ago, packaging simply kept food sealed and easy to transport. Today, expectations are different. Global supply chains, changing diets, and rising concerns over sustainability demand solutions that do more than contain. Every year, an enormous quantity of food is wasted before it even reaches a plate. Much of that loss happens because packaging fails to preserve it long enough or provide useful signals about its condition. Food engineers are tackling this problem head-on. They’re working on designs that can...