Member Matters

New national centre to help food and beverage SMEs make the switch to sustainable packaging and processing

23 September 2026

Australian food and beverage SMEs now have access to a dedicated national resource to help them transition to sustainable packaging and processing, without compromising product quality or increasing food waste.

The Food and Beverage SME Packaging and Machinery Solution Centre launched on 1 July, offering small and medium businesses independent, research-backed guidance on packaging, processing, and machinery transitions. The Centre is a collaboration between End Food Waste Australia, RMIT University, the Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP), the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA), and Tetra Pak.

As businesses move away from single-use packaging, many are grappling with new packaging formats that may unintentionally reduce shelf life and product quality, or have inherently higher environmental impacts than the packaging they replace. The Centre has been established to address exactly that risk.

“Packaging innovation is essential to achieving Australia’s sustainability goals, but it must be grounded in research,” said Dr Caroline Francis, Senior Lecturer of Industrial Design at RMIT University. “This Centre enables SMEs to test and validate real-world packaging and processing changes, ensuring that improvements in recyclability and circularity do not come at the expense of product quality or increased food waste.”

The Centre provides dollar-for-dollar matched co-funding for applied research projects, delivered within 12 months, and draws on a national network of technical experts and research institutions including RMIT, QUT, UQ, and SARDI.

Expressions of interest are now open on a rolling basis. Visit the End Food Waste website to find out more and apply.