Explore the Future of Food

Explore the Future of Food

From bio-based packaging to restaurant robots, discover the innovations coming to a grocery store or restaurant near you.

By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Tons of food waste dumped in landfills. Health concerns linked to “forever chemicals” in the environment. Restaurants struggling with labor shortages. The news headlines are filled with big challenges facing the food industry. The good news? New technologies, from bio-based food packaging to robots, are poised to enhance the farm-to-fork experience.

“We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries from material producers about industrial compostable, soy-based adhesives and coatings for food packaging and labels for food packages,” says Barry McGraw, Chief Laboratory Officer for Airable Research Laboratory.

Food packaging is a lot more complex than people realize, he adds. A snack chip bag, for example, typically isn’t made of just one material. It may contain eight different polymer layers, McGraw notes. “The challenge is that food packaging needs to protect the food's freshness while providing a cost competitive product to consumers, but the various materials that make this possible can be difficult to recycle.”

Plastics have long been a key component of food packaging, but they’re also a rapidly growing segment of municipal solid waste. In 2018, landfills received 27 million tons of plastic, including bags, sacks, wraps, bottles, jars and more, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Reducing only the amount of packing material isn’t enough to address sustainability issues. Think about disposable water bottles that “crunch” when you grab them. “This lightweight plastic is the minimum thickness,” says Rachel Petropoulos, a sustainability specialist with the Center for Innovative Food Technology in Ohio. “At that point, you can’t use less packaging material and still contain the product before it’s consumed.”

Food waste is also driving the need for more compostable food packages. In 2021, the U.S. generated 91 million tons of “surplus food,” defined as all food that goes unsold or uneaten, according to ReFED, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss and waste. Households generated nearly 50% of this surplus, which often includes food packaging.

“Food packaging doesn’t have to be considered waste if we can compost and recycle it,” Petropoulos says.

Active Packaging Keeps Bread Fresh Longer

Scientists are tackling these issues by developing improved, bio-based packaging materials made from soybeans, corn, coffee grounds, eggshells and other natural materials. While this technology has been around for more than 20 years, biopolymers still only make up a small percentage of plastic parts due in part to affordability.

“They aren’t as cost-effective as petroleum-based materials,” McGraw says. “When you’re selling millions of packages of food a year, pennies matter.”

Bio-based plastics have also had performance challenges. “They haven’t provided as good of a barrier to moisture and air as petroleumbased plastics,” Petropoulos says. “Food producers aren’t going to switch to bio-based packaging that compromises the food’s shelf life.”

A transitional solution might be polymer blends (materials made with bio-based polymers and petroleum-based polymers), Petropoulos says. “Food companies are looking to increase the amount of recycled content in their packaging, in addition to pushing material standards to compostable. Plastic made from corn, soybeans and more can be part of this solution.”

PepsiCo is interested in PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) for flexible packaging since PHA offers biodegradable properties and a lower environmental impact. SoFresh, Inc., a Wisconsin-based company focused on mitigating food spoilage and addressing food waste, is also researching new food packaging options. The company has developed “active packaging” with antimicrobial properties to extend the shelf life of bread and other foods.

The active component of the packaging, which includes an ingredient approved by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration, helps control mold spores that naturally occur on food, according to SoFresh. This mold-inhibiting film technology allows food to stay fresh longer with few or no preservatives. “While SoFresh is focusing on bread, this technology can also be used with fruit and cheese,” Petropoulos says.

Restaurant Robots Cook, Serve Food

Technology in the food industry is also focusing on automation – specifically robots that can cook French fries, flip hamburgers and transport food from the kitchen to the dining room.

“It’s fascinating to see this technology,” says Clara Chaplin, director of Bolton and Hay, a Des Moines-based restaurant supply company. “Instead of replacing people, these robots, which we call server assistants, can help address the labor shortage in the restaurant industry and allow employees to provide better service for customers.”

In the last few months, Bolton and Hay has started offering robots that customers can lease monthly from the manufacturers, complete with the latest technology. The machines operate through a remote sensing system called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) mapping. “A technician from the manufacturer helps ‘map’ the restaurant, so the robot knows where the kitchen and dining tables are located,” Chaplin says. “If the robot detects an obstacle on its route, it will stop and wait for the obstacle to move.”

The battery in the robot can power the machine all day (at least nine hours). While this technology is still in its infancy, Chaplin is excited to see what’s possible. “This is the biggest technological leap forward in the restaurant business in decades. It’s a game changer.”