S3 Partnership Food Packaging: Connecting Clusters for a Sustainable and Resilient EU Food Packaging Value Chain

As the food system faces growing sustainability and resilience challenges, the packaging that protects our food plays an increasingly central role. From ensuring food quality and safety, as such reducing food loss, to reducing environmental impact of the packaging material, food packaging should

balance between functionality and sustainability. Meeting these demands requires innovation, and Europe’s regions are leading the way.

That’s the mission of the S3 Partnership Food Packaging: to catalyze the transition to a resilient and sustainable EU food packaging value chain by focusing on the 5 R’s — Refuse, Reduce, Reuse,

Recycle, and Renewable. Our Partnership brings together food, packaging and food packaging clusters across Europe to accelerate sustainable innovation in packaging through interregional collaboration and knowledge exchange.

At the heart of our vision is a resilient, cross-sectorial ecosystem where sustainable food packaging helps reduce food loss, while maintaining food quality and safety. To achieve this, we focus on key themes such as:

• Functional food packaging that extends shelf life and maintains food safety.
• Circular food packaging aligned with EU sustainability goals.
• Packaging and legislation, including harmonization efforts to enable innovation across borders.

We work through shared objectives such as:

• Fostering innovation through networking and best practice exchange.
• Generating cross-regional projects and business cases.
• Supporting harmonized policy discussions.
• Creating a trusted platform for matchmaking and funding alignment.

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Today, the Partnership includes regions from across Europe, with strong representation from food-producing areas, innovation hubs, and circular economy frontrunners. Our current flagship project Value4Pack, within the Interregional Innovation Investment (I3) Instrument, empowers interregional collaboration and targeted support to boost investment in sustainable packaging innovation. More information: https://pack4food.be/en/projects/value4pack

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Why does this matter for the broader agri-food ecosystem?

Food packaging is deeply connected to topics like traceability, big data, and smart food systems. For example, innovations in smart packaging can offer real-time freshness indicators, digital expiry

tracking, or recyclability tagging, all of which support traceability goals and empower data-driven decision-making.

This is where our Partnerships intersect: both seek to bridge regional strengths, support SMEs, and translate innovation into practical, scalable solutions. We believe that by working together, we can close the loop, from production and packaging to distribution, data, and disposal.

Invitation to collaborate

The S3 Partnership Food Packaging is actively looking to expand its network with like-minded cluster organizations across Europe. As a member, you’ll connect with other leaders in food and packaging, contribute to working groups, share project opportunities, and co-create innovation pathways.

We invite clusters working at the crossroads of packaging, food, and sustainability to join us in shaping the future of Europe’s packaging ecosystem, safeguarding food, reducing waste, and enabling circularity.

For more information or to explore collaboration opportunities, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s build a more resilient food system together!

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More information:

Partnership Agrifood Packing

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Contact:

‍thomas.de.bock@pack4food.be (established office)