Tetra Pak is leading a worldwide initiative to transform global systems to be more secure, sustainable and resilient by harnessing the company’s leading role in the food processing and packaging industry to effect urgent change. This builds further on Tetra Pak’s lead in the Global Dairy Processing Task Force, which, as part of the ‘Pathways to Dairy Net Zero’ climate initiative, aims to explore the innovative systems and technologies needed to further drive down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in dairy processing.
“Transforming food systems is crucial for a viable future. Today, these systems are inefficient and unsustainable, responsible for over one third of GHG emissions, while one third of food produced is lost or wasted. Food systems are also failing people, with 9% of the world’s population going hungry and 30% experiencing malnutrition,’ said Charles Brand, Executive Vice President for Processing Solutions & Equipment, Tetra Pak.
Tetra Pak has identified four key pathways to accelerate food systems transformation by:
- Enabling the transition towards more sustainable dairy, by addressing the environmental impact of dairy processing while supporting smallholder farmers’ productivity, profitability and livelihoods.
- Innovating for new food sources, such as diversifying with alternative proteins, to complement dairy and other animal protein sources.
- Reducing food loss and waste, by developing food processing technologies that help reduce food waste during production, including new solutions to turn low-value side streams that would otherwise go wasted into value-added products.
- Scaling access to safe nutrition through sustainable food packaging, by designing and deploying sustainable food packaging solutions that preserve food quality and improve access to safe food.
The company has also established roadmaps and measurable targets for each of the pathways, aligning with the critical transitions for food and land transformation proposed by the Food and Land Use Coalition.
“At Tetra Pak, we are driving a transformative agenda, based on a robust evidence-base. We are answering the call for private sector engagement by demonstrating both our ambitions and our strategic plan on how we will realize them. At COP28, and beyond, we are proud to engage with government stakeholders, policymakers, industry stakeholders, customers and key opinion leaders to help transform food systems and move food forward,” concluded Brand.