The role of packaging in the food and beverage industry cannot be overstated. It goes far beyond simply holding your product—it is a crucial component that ensures portion control, maintains freshness, protects food, and upholds food safety standards. Additionally, packaging serves as the primary source of information for consumers, providing essential details such as nutritional facts, ingredient lists, and allergen warnings.
Beyond its functional purpose, packaging is also the most immediate and recognizable representation of your brand. It conveys your company’s ethos, values, and commitment to quality, often influencing purchasing decisions before a customer even experiences the product itself. In a competitive market, well-designed packaging can create a lasting impression, reinforce brand loyalty, and differentiate your product from others on the shelf.
With sustainability and consumer preferences evolving, packaging also plays a critical role in communicating your environmental responsibility. Whether through recyclable materials, minimalist design, or clear labeling of eco-friendly initiatives, your packaging is a silent yet powerful storyteller for your brand’s mission and vision.
However, the reality of modern grocery shopping is that a large portion of the packaging protecting and preserving your food ultimately becomes waste, ending up in landfills, contributing to environmental challenges.
Recognizing this pressing issue, companies like Winpak Ltd. and research institutions such as the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) are at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to reduce packaging waste. Their efforts go beyond simply reducing the volume of waste—they are actively rethinking the entire life cycle of packaging, from the responsible sourcing of raw materials to its end-of-life disposal or repurposing.
“Winpak is constantly developing packaging innovations in collaboration with our clients, suppliers, equipment, and technology partners in some cases, through the utilization of consumer feedback or panels,” says Mustafa Bilgen, Winpak VP Technology & Innovation.
“We are looking at more and more focus on sustainable products. For example, more development in what’s called ‘mono-materials’ where from a chemical perspective, it’s predominantly one single chemistry of material, generally greater than 90%. It makes it easier to manage its end-of-life cycle, which makes it more efficient to collect, sort, categorize, and ultimately recycle. This approach creates a sound foundation for the circular economy,” he says.
Collaborating and partnering with the NRC on the development of products from conception to completion entails sharing resources that Winpak may not readily possess. This “cost-sharing” of capabilities significantly contributes to the fostering of innovation and increases speed to market.
According to Éric Baril, Director General of the NRC’s Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre, “We work together on how to integrate material life cycle assessment. We collaborate on the integration and view this as a reflection of the entire recycling system. We also work out how to communicate that via consumer awareness. We consider it very important to educate the consumer on how to use and recycle.”
Through advancements in sustainable materials, compostable alternatives, and improved recyclability, these organizations are each working to create packaging solutions that align with a circular economy. By designing products that can be reused, recycled, or biodegraded efficiently, they aim to reduce environmental impact while maintaining the high standards of food safety and quality that consumers expect.
“We look at developing sustainable products as one of our long-term objectives and it always has been,” said Bilgen. “Winpak had 2025 sustainability goals which are coming to completion, and we are developing our 2030 goals which will be aligned with the science-based targets.”
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must recognize that despite possible shifts in government priorities, importing and exporting regulatory changes, and evolving industry standards, sustainability, packaging innovation, and waste reduction remain critical issues that demand attention. These priorities are not fleeting trends, but long-term imperatives shaping the future of the food and beverage industry.
Businesses that fail to adapt to these developments risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive and sustainability-driven market. Regulatory compliance, consumer expectations, and environmental responsibility are becoming more intertwined than ever, meaning that companies ignoring these shifts may face operational challenges, reputational risks, and potential financial penalties.
Rather than viewing these changes as burdensome, SMEs should see them as opportunities to future-proof their businesses, strengthen brand credibility, and align with industry leaders pushing for sustainable solutions. Winpak and the NRC are not just responding to new regulations—they are setting the stage for the next generation of packaging and food production. To neglect these advancements is to ignore the direction in which the industry is headed—at one’s own risk.
“One of our key strategic priorities at the NRC is business innovation. And one thing that I feel we need to convey to the value chain is the importance of the circular economy, the importance of maintaining efficiency throughout their products’ life cycle,” said Baril. “That’s related to the work we’re doing with Winpak, such as reducing the complexity of recycling end-of-life materials.”
According to Bilgen, “We all need to come together to develop solutions for materials, packaging formats, consumer education, and collection of the post-consumer packaging. It’s not enough to only look at one aspect. Every component needs to be looked at and thought of in terms of efficiency and how we can do the right thing.”
Discover more of Winpak and the NRC’s vision of sustainable packaging at the 2025 Cultivate Sustainability Conference, where they will be one of three keynote speakers. On March 13, 2025, join leaders and innovators in the food and beverage industry at the Canad Inns Polo Park as they embark on a journey to innovation and sustainability.
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