The case for perishable foods
Foods and beverages such as milk, juice and plant-based alternatives are highly perishable and have a shorter shelf life than many other food types. Ensuring food safety while helping reduce food loss and waste and lowering the carbon footprint of the food value chain is increasingly important for the food industry.
Aseptic means free from microbiological contamination. Aseptic packaging systems can keep perishable liquid foods safe and flavourful for months without refrigeration or preservatives while retaining their colour, texture, taste and nutrition.
Our aseptic processing and packaging solutions help protect perishable foods, extend shelf life and support access to safe nutrition by making food safely available to consumers across vast distances. In 2025, 68 million children in 52 countries received nutritious beverages in Tetra Pak packages through school feeding programmes, including in communities with limited refrigeration infrastructure.
Sustainable packaging in the European Union
At a time when over a third of food produced globally is lost or wasted1, extending shelf life and protecting perishable foods is increasingly important. Today, 154 billion litres of perishable liquid foods, such as juices, milk and plant-based alternatives, are consumed in the EU each year2 – roughly 300 litres per person. The food industry chooses beverage cartons for about 59% of juices, 75% of milk and a major share of dairy alternatives in the EU3. If not aseptically processed and packed, perishables must be kept in the cold chain, with a shorter shelf life.
European policymakers have recently revised the legislation regulating packaging for this type of food in line with the EU Green Deal4 ambitions aiming to make food systems sustainable and resilient while supporting reductions in food loss, food waste and carbon footprint.
The revision focuses on reducing packaging waste, increasing the reuse and recycling of packaging, and using plastic recycled content in packaging in line with the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Green Deal objectives. By 2030, all packaging placed on the EU market should either be recyclable or reusable.
Packaging: Recyclable or Reusable?
To learn more about the environmental and economic impact of packaging perishable liquid foods in recyclable aseptic beverage cartons versus reusable packaging alternatives, we asked consultancy Steward Redqueen to undertake comparative studies for both milk and orange juice. These studies drew on data from six major European markets.
In the case of milk, the study found that switching from aseptic beverage cartons to reusable packaging alternatives could lead to increased CO2 emissions, higher milk prices for consumers and economic losses across the value chain, including for farmers. Click here to download the study.
The orange juice study similarly found that the switch could also increase CO2 emissions and consumer prices, possibly leading to a reduction in orange juice consumption and a market contraction.
Why do European juice producers choose aseptic systems?
In juice production, the aseptic process of heat treatment, filling and packaging at the food producer maintains the absence of harmful microorganisms across the entire distribution chain until consumption5.
This helps extend the shelf life of perishable foods and beverages, minimising loss and waste.
1 Save One Third. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.saveonethird.org.
2 Key figures on the European food chain, Eurostat, 2021.
3 2018 Liquid Fruit Market Report, AIJN, 2018; Impact assessment study of an EU-wide collection for recycling target of beverage cartons, ACE, 2022;
4 A European Green Deal, European Commission, 2019.
5 Tetra Pak Orange Book.
6 Extended shelf life milk-advances in technology, Rysstad and Kolstad, 2006.
7 Growth of food-borne pathogens Listeria and Salmonella and sporeforming Paenibacillus and Bacillus in commercial plant-based milk alternatives, Klaudia Bartula, Máire Begley, Noémie Latour, Michael Callanan, FOOD MICROBIOLOGY, 2023.
8 Eurostat, 'Food waste per capita in the EU remained stable in 2021'.
9 Supporting evidence - Environmental performance of beverage cartons, Circular Analytics, 2020.
10 The circular economy is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. – Ellen MacArthur.