Research for WRAP

Campden BRI Case Study

Concerns over food wastage have been highlighted recently. This is a major concern of WRAP - the Waste & Resources Action Programme - with whom we have conducted several pieces of research recently.

In a study of how consumers treat refrigerated foods in the home, we particularly looked at the effects on temperature of transporting refrigerated food from the supermarket to the home and storage in the domestic fridge. Martin George, of Campden BRI's Food Manufacturing Technologies Department, comments:

"We concluded that there is scope to improve temperature control in the domestic chill chain. Key is improving consumer understanding of the importance of good temperature control and ensuring that tools such as fridge thermometers are used effectively. Regularly monitoring fridge temperature in a range of locations and storing the most temperature-sensitive foods in the coldest part of the fridge could deliver significant benefits."

Amongst recommendations in the report are that food manufacturers should simplify the labelling of products with respect to storage conditions on-pack, and that the use of re-closable packaging should be extended, particularly for products like cheese and cooked meat. Full details of this research are available on the WRAP website, and research is now ongoing on temperature control from manufacture to point of sale.

In other research undertaken for WRAP, we have looked at ways to reduce wastage of potatoes; this involved practical trials using barrier films and modified atmosphere packaging to prolong shelf-life of different potato varieties, as well as studies to find out what consumers look for in potatoes when deciding whether they are still fit for consumption.

We have also investigated modified atmosphere packaging for its ability to prolong the shelf life of stone fruit, particularly nectarines, in the distribution chain. In this work, promising results were obtained when wrapping punnets of fruit in modified atmosphere liners.

Martin George continues: "Campden BRI has carried out a number of separate studies for WRAP recently, looking at different potential sources of waste in the food supply and distribution chain. This shows how clients can rely on us to bring a range of perspectives to a problem - our wide base of expertise makes us the ideal partner for many research bodies."