Sustainable food packaging: a case study of chocolate products

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.