What is sustainable food packaging and why does it matter?

Sustainable food packaging is packaging designed to minimize environmental harm across its entire life cycle, from the raw materials used to make it, through its use, and to what happens after it is discarded. In practice, this means choosing materials that are renewable, recyclable, or both, reducing unnecessary material use, and ensuring the packaging does not leave lasting waste in the environment. For food producers, getting this right matters more than ever, because regulatory requirements, retailer expectations, and consumer preferences are all moving in the same direction at the same time. The questions below unpack the most important aspects of sustainable packaging for anyone working in or buying from the food industry.

What makes food packaging truly sustainable?

Food packaging is truly sustainable when it reduces environmental impact at every stage of its life, not just at one point. This means the raw materials are renewable or recycled, the manufacturing process is efficient, the packaging protects food effectively to prevent waste, and the used package can be recovered and recycled rather than sent to landfill.

A common misconception is that sustainability is a single property, like being made from paper or labeled as biodegradable. In reality, it is a balance of factors. Packaging that uses a renewable material but requires enormous energy to produce, or that cannot be recycled in practice, falls short of the full picture. Equally, packaging that is technically recyclable but so poorly designed that it contaminates the recycling stream is not genuinely sustainable either.

Three criteria tend to define truly sustainable food packaging:

• Material origin: Raw materials should come from renewable sources, such as responsibly managed forests, or from recycled content rather than fossil fuels.
• Food protection: The packaging must preserve the food inside, because food waste has a far larger environmental footprint than the packaging itself.
• End-of-life recovery: The packaging should be recyclable or recoverable through widely available systems, not just in theory but in the real infrastructure consumers and businesses actually use.

We built the Jospak® cardboard tray around exactly these principles, combining a fiber-based structure made from wood grown in sustainably managed forests with a gas-tight barrier that extends fresh food shelf life, all in a format that is recyclable as cardboard in most European countries.

What are the main types of sustainable food packaging materials?

The main types of sustainable food packaging materials are fiber-based materials (cardboard, paperboard, and molded fiber), bio-based plastics, glass, and metal. Among these, fiber-based materials have seen the fastest growth in food applications because they combine renewability, recyclability, and compatibility with high-speed industrial packaging lines.

Fiber-based packaging

Cardboard and paperboard trays, boxes, and wraps are made from wood fiber, which is a renewable raw material that grows back naturally. They are widely recyclable alongside other paper and cardboard packaging. The main technical challenge for food use has been creating a barrier against moisture, grease, and gases without relying on heavy plastic coatings. Advances in thin barrier films and fiber-forming technology have made it possible to produce fiber trays that meet the gas-tight requirements of modified atmosphere packaging, which is the standard method used to extend the shelf life of fresh meat, fish, and ready meals.

Bio-based and compostable plastics

Bio-based plastics are made from plant-derived feedstocks rather than fossil fuels. Some are also compostable under industrial conditions, meaning they break down in certified composting facilities under the right conditions. However, compostability should not be confused with recyclability. Most compostable food packaging cannot be processed in standard recycling streams and requires separate collection infrastructure that is not yet widely available in most markets. For this reason, fiber-based solutions are generally more practical for food producers who need to demonstrate real-world recyclability today.

Glass and metal

Glass and aluminum have excellent recycling credentials and can be recycled repeatedly without loss of quality. Their main limitations for fresh food applications are weight, energy intensity in production, and incompatibility with the modified atmosphere packaging formats that dominate chilled food retail. They remain important in specific categories, such as beverages and preserved foods, but are rarely the right choice for fresh protein products or ready meals.

How does food packaging affect the environment?

Food packaging affects the environment through the extraction of raw materials, energy used in manufacturing, greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain, and the waste generated when packaging is discarded. However, packaging also plays a critical role in preventing food waste, and food waste itself has a much larger environmental footprint than the packaging that protects it.

The scale of the packaging waste challenge is significant. Eurostat data show that the EU generated close to 80 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023 alone. Plastic packaging is a particular concern because it is resource-intensive to produce and, despite improvements, still has relatively low recycling rates compared to paper and cardboard.

The type of raw material matters enormously. Packaging made from fossil-based plastic draws on a finite resource and generates greenhouse gas emissions both in production and, if not recycled, at the end of its life. In contrast, fiber-based packaging made from sustainably grown wood uses a raw material that absorbs carbon as it grows and can be recycled through established paper and cardboard collection systems.

The environmental impact of packaging is also closely tied to how well it protects the food inside. Modified atmosphere packaging, for example, can extend the shelf life of fresh meat products by a significant margin compared to conventional packaging. When food reaches consumers in good condition rather than being discarded, the environmental savings from avoided food waste typically outweigh the environmental cost of the packaging itself.

What regulations are driving sustainable packaging in the food industry?

The most significant regulation driving sustainable food packaging in the EU is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which begins to apply on 12 August 2026. As a regulation rather than a directive, PPWR takes direct effect across all 27 EU member states without requiring national implementation — setting binding requirements on recyclability, recycled content, material efficiency, and extended producer responsibility. By 2030, all packaging placed on the EU market must be recyclable at scale, and paper and cardboard packaging must meet a 75% recycling target. The PPWR also introduces binding reuse and minimization targets for certain packaging categories by the same date.

The PPWR is not the only regulatory pressure food producers face. From 12 August 2026, the regulation also prohibits food-contact packaging that contains intentionally added PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) above specified concentration limits. PFAS have been widely used in grease-resistant coatings for food packaging, including some trays and wraps used for meat and ready meals. Producers and their packaging suppliers need to verify their materials are compliant before the deadline, and the European Commission has confirmed there are no plans to postpone the start date. The fiber materials and processes used by Jospak already meet these strict purity requirements, and the risk of unintentional residues from recycled fiber is actively managed in our supply chain.

On the consumer-facing side, the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive applies from September 2026 and prohibits generic environmental claims such as “eco-friendly,” “green,” or “climate-neutral” unless they are backed by specific, verifiable evidence. This means that food producers making sustainability claims about their packaging need to be able to point to concrete, substantiated facts rather than broad marketing language.

Together, these regulations create a clear direction of travel: packaging must be demonstrably recyclable, must avoid harmful substances, and any environmental claims made about it must be specific and provable. Companies that have already invested in certified, fiber-based packaging solutions are better positioned to meet these requirements than those still relying on conventional plastic formats.

What’s the difference between recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable packaging?

Recyclable packaging can be collected, processed, and turned into new materials through existing waste management systems. Compostable packaging breaks down into organic matter under specific controlled conditions, typically in industrial composting facilities under the right conditions. Biodegradable packaging breaks down naturally over time, but without any defined timeframe or conditions, making it the least precisely defined of the three terms.

For food producers, the practical difference matters as much as the technical one. Recyclable packaging integrates into the infrastructure that already exists in most European countries, meaning consumers can place it in their existing recycling bins alongside other cardboard or plastic. This makes recyclability the most accessible and verifiable end-of-life claim for packaging today.

Compostable packaging requires a separate collection stream and access to industrial composting facilities, which are not universally available. Home composting conditions are rarely sufficient for certified compostable food packaging, which typically requires higher temperatures to break down properly. Labeling packaging as compostable without this context risks misleading consumers about how it should actually be disposed of.

Biodegradable is the broadest and least regulated term. In most contexts, it simply means that a material will eventually break down, which is technically true of almost any organic material. Without specifying the conditions, timeframe, and end products of that degradation, the claim carries very little practical meaning. From September 2026, the EU’s anti-greenwashing rules will require any such claim to be substantiated with specific evidence, making vague biodegradability claims legally risky.

For fresh food packaging in particular, recyclable fiber-based formats currently offer the clearest and most defensible sustainability credentials, because they fit into systems consumers and waste processors already understand and use. This approach also directly supports the PPWR’s requirement that all packaging be recyclable at scale by 2030 — a standard that the Jospak® cardboard tray is designed to meet, with the cardboard and film separated so that valuable fiber can be returned to existing collection systems.

How can food producers switch to sustainable packaging without disrupting production?

Food producers can switch to sustainable packaging without disrupting production by choosing formats that are compatible with their existing packaging lines. The most common barrier to switching is not the packaging material itself but the assumption that new materials require new machinery. In practice, well-designed fiber-based trays can run on the same automated tray-sealing lines already used for conventional plastic formats.

The Jospak® cardboard tray was specifically engineered to work with the standard tray-sealing and modified atmosphere packaging equipment already installed in food production facilities. This means producers can transition to a fiber-based format without capital investment in new lines or lengthy requalification processes, which are typically the biggest sources of operational disruption.

Beyond equipment compatibility, a successful switch involves a few practical steps:

1. Audit the current packaging footprint: Understand which formats are in use, what certifications they carry, and where the biggest material and emissions reductions are possible.
2. Verify end-of-life claims: Confirm that the proposed new packaging is genuinely recyclable in the target markets, not just in theory.
3. Check regulatory alignment: Ensure the new packaging meets PPWR requirements — including the recyclability-at-scale mandate taking effect from 12 August 2026 — is free from restricted substances such as intentionally added PFAS, and that any claims made about it comply with the EU’s incoming anti-greenwashing rules.
4. Run line trials: Test the new format on existing equipment with the actual food products and sealing parameters used in production.
5. Update supplier certifications: Certifications such as FSC for responsible fiber sourcing and BRCGS for packaging safety provide auditable evidence of compliance that retailers and regulators increasingly expect.

For producers who want structured support through this process, our sustainability consulting service draws on our direct experience of developing and scaling certified fiber-based packaging to help food companies identify practical, measurable steps toward reducing plastic use and meeting the requirements that regulators and retailers are now demanding.