Data on over 10,000 packagings to explore!
As you may already know, Open Food Facts and ADEME have been working hand in hand since December 2022 on the “Tackling food Packaging” campaign.
The aim? To collect as much data as possible on food packaging in order to reduce its impact on the environment and encourage more sustainable practices. ♻️
After several months of efforts to encourage consumers and producers to collect and share packaging data, we take a look back today at the results achieved and the lessons learned.
Thanks to everyone’s participation, the Open Food Facts database has grown much faster than we had hoped. The packaging data for over 10,000 products has been sifted through, and all this information, now open, will be useful to a wide range of stakeholders. 🚀
Consumers, researchers and manufacturers on the front line
The public response was overwhelming, with almost 200 participants collecting detailed data on the packaging of over 1,600 products. The operation generated a great deal of enthusiasm from the general public: curious citizens interested in the impact of packaging, passionate contributors, researchers, but also committed citizens who even organised their own scan-party.
The industry also played its part, with around twenty brands and distributors sharing their packaging data on Open Food Facts. These professional contributions accounted for a significant proportion of the data collected.
Transparency: a lever for accessing data that is still difficult to collect
Among the difficulties encountered during the campaign, on the consumer side, the need for precision scales to capture weights, and the lack of knowledge about packaging shapes and materials were the main pain points.
On the manufacturers’ side, we found that packaging data within companies is often difficult to access, fragmented and non-standardised. Collecting and reworking this data therefore required a considerable effort.
Yet, we are very proud to see that the campaign has succeeded in mobilising different stakeholders, collecting accurate data on packaging and raising public awareness of eco-design.
Despite the challenges encountered, the initiative has paved the way for greater transparency and a better understanding of the impact of packaging on the environment.
Our dataset is available, now it’s your turn to play! 💻🌍
Naturally, the dataset containing information on food packaging is available in open data!
We invite all data enthusiasts to explore this set, analyse it and come up with interpretations and graphical visualisations. 📊
We’re sure your talent and imagination can give rise to lots of innovative ideas: data visualisations, mobile app ideas, infographics, mini-games, etc. 📱
To stimulate your creativity, we’ve decided to organise a hackathon at the beginning of September dedicated to the data collected as part of the “Tackling food packaging” project. 📅💡
We’ll tell you more very soon.
The best ideas and achievements will be presented during a public webinar, scheduled for 11 September and co-organised with ADEME.🎙️
We’re counting on you, our superb community, to rise to this challenge and help us explore new perspectives for the future of food packaging. 🧃
See you soon 👋