An accomplished entrepreneur with a career spanning more than 30 years, John Blazevich has worked in several sectors, including agriculture, aquaculture, livestock, and fishing. In 1984, he founded Contessa Premium Foods and served as its president and CEO until 2011. During his tenure, the company's sales exceeded $4 billion, offering a wide range of innovative food products. John Blazevich is an accomplished inventor with numerous patents on food processing, marketing, and packaging.
Food packaging is an integral component of the food sector due to factors like importation and exportation, drive-throughs, takeaways, and home deliveries. Packaging preserves food quality and extends its shelf life while keeping contaminants away. Plastics have been the most common packaging material due to their lightweight, low cost, and design flexibility. Other major packaging materials in the food sector are aluminum, glass, and paper.
Many food packaging materials are single-use products that should be disposed of after use. Some materials don't decompose readily and present a significant waste burden. While companies that develop eco-friendly food packaging products have rolled out biodegradable solutions, the vast majority of businesses in the food sector haven't transitioned from conventional packages, so the waste problem remains. Some sustainable alternatives include packaging made from raw materials like mushrooms, cornstarch, and popcorn.
While transitioning from conventional packaging to sustainable packaging may be gradual, businesses in the food sector should minimize overpackaging using conventional packaging. For example, some food retailers wrap and enclose items in multiple layers of packaging, even when fewer layers would have been sufficient. Overpackaging contributes to the accumulation of unnecessary waste and should be avoided, according to Earth.org.
