Thursday, May 1, 2014

Why Environmentally Friendly Food Packaging Should Be Adopted

By Eloise Hewitt


Having a meal is an important element of human livelihood. The meals need to be healthy and should not pose any risk to life. It is therefore important to maintain high hygienic practices through environmentally friendly food packaging. There are many options when it comes to this. Unfortunately, most of the choices made lead to massive pollution risking the very lives of those who use them.

The environment only supports life because of the availability of oxygen. This should be kept in constant and sufficient supply if people were to be assured of their survival. Non-biodegradable materials pose untold danger to the atmosphere. These include plastics and glasses. Since they cannot decay, they form heaps that become a nuisance as they cannot be disposed.

Their effects can either be long term or short term. For the former, the biggest culprits are children who like playing near dumping sites. They risk injury either physically or caused by chemicals. Poisonous gases are also released from these sites that can make the children sick. The long term effects range from vegetation depletion to ozone layer depletion. All these problems could be avoided if garbage was disposed of well.

To avoid being infested with germs, foodstuffs have to be safely handled, cooked in a clean environment and packaged in clean containers that are germ free. More wrappings are used on products that will stay in the shelf for long before they are consumed. The materials are made readily available for convenience.

Although they fail to decay, chlorofluorocarbons like plastic and rubber are at times unavoidable. Nevertheless, care should be taken not to use them in excess as this adds salt to an incurable wound. Training and sensitization by the producing companies on how to go about managing wastes and disposing them off safely can go a long way in bringing positive change.

Plastics or cans are sometimes used as food storage for such a long duration that they risk going bad. Since these cans are not eaten, they are better dumped safely or returned to the factory for recycling. Rules and regulations on these matters if any have to be followed promptly. One conventional way is the use of strategically placed bins. The bins are emptied and properly emptied according to laid down procedure by professionals.

Environmental friendliness also involves the health of the air that we breathe. When packaging, take care of the preservatives that are used. Some of these preservatives and food colors can be fatal. There is need to conduct thorough laboratory testing and analysis in order to come up with safe products. Written papers should not be allowed contact with the edible products. The ink contains some chemicals that even in small doses, are not fit for human consumption.

Our desire of being creative and have attractive covers for our products thus needs not to override the requirement to comply with laid down health regulations. Of utmost importance is to beware of the chemicals we release into the environment as these later become a stumbling block in terms of diseases and other complications.




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