IFCA Star Awards 2021 and Seminar at ANUTEC India

On 3 December 2021, the Indian Flexible Packaging & Folding Carton Manufacturers Association (IFCA) organized a summit titled ‘Continuous Enabler for Creation of Value and Star Awards’ at ANUTEC – International Foodtec India, Pragati Maidaan, New Delhi. The seminar was followed by the prestigious IFCA Star Awards Ceremony 2021.

The summit was inaugurated by Chandrasekhar Rajagopalan, president of IFCA and Suresh Gupta, chairman of IFCA. While delivering the inaugural address, both shared their views on the importance of flexible food packaging, sustainability, and the social and environmental responsibilities that major companies have upon them.

While pressing upon the importance of good packaging, Suresh Gupta said, “If good packaging weren’t there, we would not exist as a species. That is how important packaging is.” Furthermore, touching upon the importance of good food packaging, Gupta mentioned that it adds value to the product and is among the primary influences on the customers.

Manmeet Aneja, AVP – Head, procurement and milk sourcing, South East Asia region – Nestle delivered his keynote session on ‘Expectation of continuous value addition from packaging’. Aneja spoke about the importance of packaging and the social and moral responsibility of industries to cut down on wastage to save the environment. He said, “The drastic effect of packaging waste has created a negative impact on the oceans, animals, by and large, the whole planet.”

Aneja further mentioned that Nestle aims to be more sustainable by implementing various methods and solutions like reusing and recycling packaging by 2025. “Today, one-third of the food that we produce is wasted because it cannot be preserved; it cannot be processed. At the same time, eight million people die of hunger and starvation. This can be reduced by giving proper preservation via packaging and timely transportation. This food waste, if protected, can address the entire starvation food problem. This food waste, if saved, takes care of 90% of greenhouse gases issues.

Packaging is an essential element to address key challenges of sustainable food consumption, which is clearly about minimizing the environmental footprint of packed food. An innovative sustainable packaging aims to address food waste reduction by preserving food quality and food safety issues by preventing food-borne diseases and food chemical contamination. The speakers also shared their insights on food safety and sustainability and enlightened the audiences with the steps ahead.

IFCA Star Awards 2021

IFCA Star Awards provides a platform for encouraging creativity and continuous improvement. This is a prestigious award for the Flexible Packaging Industry, Carton Packaging Industry, and associate manufacturers like inks, adhesives, films, machinery, etc. The manufacturers from these sectors participate widely and showcase their innovations in this competitive event organized by IFCA. In 2021, IFCA received 135 entries in a great deal of variety and diversity in innovative packaging solutions.

The seminar concluded with the IFCA Star Award ceremony. Various members from the food packaging industries were felicitated with the awards for their innovations across multiple packaging categories.

Winners of IFCA Star Awards 2021

The winners included UFlex Limited, Cosmo Films, 3D Technopack, Brilliant Polymers, Cipla, DSM Agencies, EPL (ESSEL Group), GLS Films Industries, Huhtamaki India, H B Fuller India Adhesives, Huber Group India, Indo Straits, ITC, Max Speciality Films, Manohar Packaging, Multiflex Polybags, Michelman, Paharpur 3P, Print Dynamic, Parksons Packaging, Sweet Industries, Safepack Industries, Siegwerk India, Shakti Plastics Industries, TCPL Packaging, and UMAX Packaging.