SIG Foundation has received international recognition for its ‘Cartons for Good’ initiative, which uses the firm’s expertise in filling technology to help communities process and preserve their food into meals locally.
The prize, awarded by the SAVE FOOD initiative, was presented to the Foundation in Cairo, Egypt at pacprocess MEA, a trade fair for processing and packaging. SIG said the prize money will be invested in a ‘comprehensive and locally based’ study to ensure the impact of Cartons for Good in Egypt is as high as possible.
SIG explained that, every day, a third of the world’s food is lost. Farmers are often unable to sell their entire harvest at local markets, and have no way of preserving the products.
The Cartons for Good project has been operating in Bangladesh since 2019. SIG engineers developed a system that uses the company’s boil-down technology to preserve food in SIG SafeBloc carton packs. Vegetables and fruit are processed into meals without preservatives and filled into carton packs. This means they can be stored at ambient conditions for up to nine months without refrigeration.
The aim of the foundation is to expand the programme to other parts of the world.
Holger Dickers, MD of the Swiss-based foundation, said, “We are honoured to receive the SAVE FOOD Award. Cartons for Good is the foundation’s flagship project. It is a unique initiative designed to help communities to save surplus food, support farmers’ livelihoods, and promote children’s nutrition and education.”
