By Dr. Bernhard Reichenbach

It is obvious: the destruction of our planet continues unabated. The main causes are the unrestrained growth of the earth’s population, excessive consumer behaviour and the associated consequences such as the littering of the oceans. It is also obvious that more needs to be done than before to counter these harmful developments. This applies, for example, to the packaging sector. The guiding theme of the trade fair FachPack 2019 pointed in the right direction: “Environmentally friendly packaging”. It hits the nerve of the time, and around half of the exhibitors presented packaging materials, machinery or processes that enable environmentally friendly packaging.

Three other articles to this issue deal with the topic of sustainability: we present the “Cacao-Trace” programme of the Belgian group Puratos, which supports cocoa farmers, and report on a visit to the Dutch company GNT, a leading producer of natural colouring foods. In addition, we are dealing with the congress “Networking Days” of the Swiss technology group Bühler, which addressed nutrition and transport of the world population in the year 2050.

In our “sp portrait” we present the company Vemag. It is one of the leading manufacturers of machines for filling, portioning, dividing, shaping and depositing pasty foods, doughs and masses.

Finally, I would like to inform you about news on our own behalf: Sweets Processing has set up an advisory board. Its members are to accompany the editorial work in an advisory capacity and give impulses for the further development of the magazine (page 6)

Dr. Bernhard Reichenbach, Chefredakteur