Researchers are exploring a variety of alternative packaging materials and containers to see which work best and most cost-effectively at reducing losses in food aid.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ships food aid worth more than $1 billion every year to dozens of countries around the world. The agency estimates that about 1% of that food is lost to spoilage, roughly $10 million worth of food. And some within-nation food procurement suffers even higher losses.

Food aid bags in a Texas warehouse.A research project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE) has studied possible solutions. Mark Brennan, a Ph.D student and CITE researcher says that most current food aid shipments have used the same packaging for decades, mostly paper and woven polypropylene bags.

An experiment is testing a variety of options, including larger bags that may reduce unit costs, chemical compounds on bags that prevent insects from reproducing, and airtight liners to keep out moisture and insects.

Shipments in the test bags are being evaluated at various points to see whether better packaging can reduce the need for product fumigation, and how new packaging can cut down on losses due to spoilage, insect infestation, mold, or spillage.

Potentially, better packaging could make it feasible to send different kinds of crops to different parts of the world. Alternatively, the researchers say that USAID's current packaging practices may already be cost-effective.

The project is part of the overall MIT CITE program, funded by USAID, which aims to evaluate a variety of development technologies using an interdisciplinary approach and a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand which technologies best serve families living in poverty.