Is the European foodservice packaging sector facing an “existential crisis”?

Eamonn Bates, secretary general of lobby group 360° Foodservice, says that the European foodservice market and its packaging value chain are headed for an “existential crisis,” as businesses will not be able to abide by impending regulations.

The market is rapidly expanding, but the majority of foodservice businesses are unaware that the Single-use Plastics Directive (SUPD) and Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will drastically alter the industry in the coming years, with sweeping product bans and strict recyclability requirements for which the industry is unprepared. 

Bates says this combination of sector growth and regulatory confusion could, in the worst-case scenario, result in three major crises: 

“There will be market disruption on a large scale and an abrupt end to the foodservice packaging business as we know it today, putting the unprepared out of business. Second, the opportunity for a smooth, planned transition of the European foodservice sector will be lost.”

“And third, the European market will be flooded with non-compliant, unsafe reusable items from Asia competing unfairly with European products.” 

The “brewing storm” 

Bates says segment growth is strong, with 5-6% growth across the whole segment and possibly double that for the international chains. 

“Ironically, that growth is part of the problem. It means more foodservice packaging — but more packaging is not what the EU legislator wants.”

“The European Green Deal is predicated on cutting resource consumption. To have any hope of meeting the EU’s 2050 net zero emissions obligation, the EU must lose some of the emissions generated by extracting and converting primary resources,” he notes. 

Eamonn Bates, secretary general of lobby group 360° Foodservice.The PPWR is soon to be formally adopted and will apply as of mid-2026. It contains no mandatory single-use bans or reuse targets for takeaway packaging, and exempts fiber-based products (including those with plastic composite layers) from the single-use plastic ban on in-store F&B products. 

But another EU law will override this in practice at the national level, stresses Bates. “Yet few in the industry seem to be aware of what is coming.”

The SUPD, which has applied in the EU since 2021, takes precedence over the PPWR, he explains. It requires all EU countries to cut market consumption of single-use plastics in foodservice packaging. “So far, the vast majority of governments have failed to act.” 

“In contrast to the general packaging regulation, the SUPD classifies paper cups and foodservice containers as single-use plastics whenever they contain the slightest plastic element. So, despite the PPWR’s apparent acceptance of fibre-based composites for in-store use, this will not protect them from the SUPD requirement to cut market volumes at national level.” 

Enforcement on the horizon 

Most governments have not started this market consumption reduction yet, largely due to a lack of data, but Bates says “it is only a matter of time” before pressure from Brussels forces them to deliver. 

“The SUPD has put in place a national data collection requirement that should soon shed light on the scale of the challenge ahead. Single-use packs used in-store will be an obvious and easy target for governments short on ideas and expertise. Expect a plethora of uncoordinated in-store bans or reuse objectives to emerge across Europe.”

The PPWR is also set to bring another huge challenge, Bates continues. The recyclability requirement for all packaging, both single-use and reusable, by 2035, could “devastate” the industry, he claims. 

“A packaging type will be considered as ‘recyclable’ only if it meets certain recyclability grades, follows EU design for recycling criteria (both of which still need to be defined and published) and ‘recycled at scale.’” 

“The latter has the potential to devastate the foodservice sector. To be classed as “recycled at scale’ 55% of the quantity of each type of packaging placed on the EU market must be recycled in every EU country by 2035. But in most EU countries today, there is no effective separate collection and recycling of foodservice packaging, not even for packs used in-store.”

Avoiding catastrophe 

To prevent the closure of huge numbers of businesses and resulting unemployment, several measures need to be taken immediately, Bates says. 

“Investment in systems and infrastructure must start now, or both single-use and reusable foodservice packaging could be banned across the EU in the next decade. That sounds unthinkable but it is the direct implication of the PPWR rules.”

“In an ideal world, the EU legislators — the trio of Commission, Parliament and the Council of EU governments — would correct the mistakes or unintended impacts. That seems unlikely as regulators do not yet appreciate where the problems lie although these will emerge as the EU rules are rolled out nationally.”

“The first thing that needs to happen is that industry leaders must actually lead, they must collectively take the future of the industry in hand. Because the major players have not done this so far, legislators are doing it instead and getting it wrong,” he says. 

“If the foodservice sector is going to continue growing, then some structured thinking by the industry is needed about how to expand in a sustainable way beyond making crass green claims and hoping for the best.”

“A long-term vision, goal and plan is desperately needed that the extended sector can work toward and that allows both the private and public sectors to invest with confidence.”

“The extended foodservice sector must convince national and local governments to play their part. This means thinking out of the box, looking at innovative groundbreaking new ways of addressing the challenges in the different foodservice contexts. Systems thinking will be essential to achieving the paradigm shift that policymakers want but do not know how to deliver.”

“It is up to the extended foodservice industry to come up with a plan and convince the legislator that there is a better way than short-term bans and targets that are all too often based on inadequate impact assessment, little or no understanding of the business of foodservice and no real insights into consumer behavior. Industry can and must help with all this,” he concludes.