Editorial - Preserving food and the planet: Sustainable packaging for a circular food economy

Ensuring global food security while minimizing environmental impact has become one of the defining challenges of our century. Roughly one third of all food produced is lost or wasted worldwide, contributing nearly 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the food packaging sector, his...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Guzmán-Puyol, Susana, Benítez, José J., Heredia-Guerrero, José A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/411416
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/411416
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/105024547300
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Sustainable
Food economy
Preserving
Packaging
Descripción
Sumario:Ensuring global food security while minimizing environmental impact has become one of the defining challenges of our century. Roughly one third of all food produced is lost or wasted worldwide, contributing nearly 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the food packaging sector, historically designed for preservation and convenience, is responsible for a significant share of plastic production and waste. This duality highlights the urgent need to rethink packaging not only as a protective barrier but as an enabler of circularity. The concept of a circular food economy provides a powerful framework for this transformation. It seeks to maintain food quality, reduce waste, and valorize by-products and side streams as new resources. Within this paradigm, sustainable packaging materials become pivotal (i.e., they protect food, extend shelf life, and increasingly emerge from the same agri-food residues they help preserve)