Food Packaging

Sustainable food packaging: a case study of chocolate products

Cristina Allione 1 , *, Claudia De Giorgi 2 , Beatrice Lerma 3 and Luca Petrucelli 4

1,2, 3, 4,

Politecnico di Torino, DIPRADI Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Turin, Italy *cristina.allione@polito.it

Abstract The paper deals with a multidisciplinary research, with the purpose to develop a sustainability index able to take in account the environmental, social and good quality aspects of agri-food products along their life cycle. In this multidisciplinary research the Industrial Design Research Unit of the DIPRADI Department is involved in developing an assessment method for the food packaging. Specifically the research has been started from an analysis of the state of the art of the packaging concerning three specific agri-food products, which are representative of the traditional agri-food production chain of the Piedmont Region: chocolate and sweet products, alcoholic beverage, meats and cold cuts. By the analysis of the scenario of these case studies, a multicriteria evaluation system useful for the assessment of eco-compatibility level of food packaging is under development. The results collected so far into this research, are illustrated in this paper.

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Introduction

The paper originates from a multidisciplinary research project POLIEDRO (Pollenzo Index Environmental and Economics, research in progress, funded by the Piedmont region) aimed at developing an evaluation system for agri-food products, capable of summarising the principle of good, clean and fair and therefore capable of considering to the same level, the environmental, social and quality variables that influence the performance of the agri-food product throughout its entire life cycle. An evaluation system that on the one side is adopted by local producers to assess the level of sustainability of their products

and on the other is a guide for the consumer in the choice of agri-food products more...