Safety vs sustainability: Increasing use of single-use food packaging due to COVID-19 – but is it truly safer?

Single-use, disposable food packaging appeared to have made a comeback​ rising on the coattails of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many consumers believed this to be safer and/or more hygienic – but are these beliefs truly warranted?

For some years now, sustainability had been a key trend and driver in the business and marketing strategies for many food and beverage companies in the Asia Pacific region such as Coca-Cola​ and Nestle​ especially after China banned plastic waste imports​ in 2018.

One of the main initiatives across many of these that have this focus had generally been to cut down on the use of single-use plastic bottles and packaging – but experts say it was likely that ‘companies may resort to plastic packaging to combat the spread of the pandemic, putting the sustainability aspect in the back seat’​ again.

“Single-use packaging, which has faced lots of criticism in recent years because of environmental concerns, might be seen as a better packaging alternative from a ‘hygiene’ point of view because of limited handling/access of the inner products,” said insights firm GlobalData’s Practice Head of Consumer Beverages Arvind Kaila.