Natural leaf-type as food packaging material for traditional food in Nigeria: sustainability aspects and theoretical cir
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Natural leaf-type as food packaging material for traditional food in Nigeria: sustainability aspects and theoretical circular economy solutions Obiora B. Ezeudu 1 & Jonah C. Agunwamba 1,2 & Tochukwu S. Ezeudu 3 & Uzochukwu C. Ugochukwu 1 & Ikenna C. Ezeasor 1 Received: 26 August 2020 / Accepted: 14 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Global call for healthy and sustainable food production and consumption has been loud, and the majority of these calls center on ensuring food security through sustainable agriculture. The other parts of the food supply chain such as consumption, packaging, recycling, and food waste management seem to be overlooked especially by developing nations of the world where attention is mainly placed on production. But in the broad sense, public health and environmental quality could be adversely impacted by neglect, mismanagement, or loophole on any of these food management systems. Hence, the current work studies the health and environmental impacts of local food packaging materials, adopting Nigeria as a proxy for the developing world. A review was first conducted to appraise the sustainability aspects of achieving and using natural leaves as a packaging material for traditional foods in Nigeria. The result of the review rightly shows that leaf-type packaging material has several apparent health and environmental advantages for food packaging. In view of this, the current work proposes a theoretical circular economy model that would ensure the constant and sustainable availability of these local packaging materials, especially in the urban centers. Keywords Urban policy . Waste recycling . Public health policy . Environmental health policy . Urban development
Introduction Food as one of the three basic needs of mankind has featured prominently in major discussions fronts—national, continental, and global. At the global level, statistics have it that one in every nine people goes to bed each night hungry (FAO 2008). Approximately 15% of the world population suffers from hunger and under consumption of food (Food Aid Foundation 2019), while close to 21,000 people die every day due to hunger-related causes (UNICEF 2011). Given these reasons, ensuring food security through sustainable agriculture was Responsible Editor: Philippe Loubet * Obiora B. Ezeudu [email protected] 1
Centre for Environmental Management and Control, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu 410001, Nigeria
2
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka 410001, Nigeria
3
Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu 410001, Nigeria
captured in goal two (2) of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The aforementioned figures and facts are also reasonably significant that they have triggered a remarkable rise in global concern for sustainable food security starting from cultivation, harvesting, storage, processing, preparation even unto packaging of processed food, and its final cons
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