Hey!
Welcome back! This week we will be taking a look at a different Chinese Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which just happens to be around the corner (1 October)! The Mid-Autumn Festival is another time for family reunions and is said to be the day where the moon shines the brightest. Many stories about Mid-Autumn are associated with the moon, and so the moon is celebrated and appreciated during the festival as well. A key part of this festival is the eating of mooncakes, a circular pastry with white lotus paste as its main filling. Other ingredients can be added into the paste as well, such as salted egg yolks, nuts, and smoked duck.
Source: Pexels. By Streetwindy
Mooncakes are delicious and I always look forward to this time of the year when they are in hot demand. However, it is because of the seasonal demand of mooncakes that leads to much wastage as well. Bakeries and hotels that mass produce mooncakes for Mid-Autumn tend to overproduce which leads to much surplus at the end of the festival. In Hong Kong last year, it was reported by the South China Morning Post that the increase in mooncakes going to waste was expected to be around 0.7 million, leading to a total of 2.9 million mooncakes being wasted.
The waste doesn’t stop there. Mooncakes are often packaged in intricate and fancy boxes to increase their aesthetic appeal and make them presentable gifts. Retailers have to find ways to stand out against the competition, which can lead to them designing more elaborate box designs to capture the attention of potential customers. However, as reported by CNA in 2019, these boxes are often hard to recycle as plastic is usually incorporated with paper for the production of these boxes.
On the bright side, due to the compartmentalisation that is common in the boxes, they can be easily re-used for many purposes. To find out more, I did a short poll on Instagram asking my friends how they dealt with empty mooncake boxes. The results show that the majority try to re-use the boxes, with some offering suggestions like using the boxes to store stationery, coins and jewellery.
In fact, some producers have been trying to encourage the re-use of the boxes, such as by placing a mirror inside the box to turn it into a makeup kit. As mentioned in the CNA article, some companies are also trying to create mooncake boxes that are more recyclable and reusable.
All in all, this seems like a step in the right direction. However, I feel that this is not enough. There is still far too much waste being generated and it is unlikely that we will always find another purpose for all the boxes if we buy mooncakes every year. Hence, I feel that we should try to reject the notion of having these wonderfully crafted boxes when buying mooncakes, especially when it is only for our own consumption and not for gifting purposes. To me, all the boxes are adding is an extra cost to my wallet when all I want is those delicious mooncakes… 🤤
That’s all for this week and I hope everyone has a great week ahead!
Jun Yu
Hi Jun Yu!
Thanks for addressing this issue 🙂 I certainly feel the same. Mooncake packaging is of such high importance that people are willing to pay more for the aesthetics! I can’t help but feel that mooncakes now are getting more expensive than before. That’s why, I’ve decided to make some on my own this year. Do you think that if more people were to bake their own mooncakes, companies would reduce their resources used in producing aesthetically pleasing packaging? Or would they instead use more resources to produce even nicer looking mooncake packaging to attract customers (which in turn produces more waste)?
– Jo
Hi Jo!
Thanks for reading! What an interesting point you’ve brought up. Honestly, I’m not too sure what action these companies would take. I feel that they would be more inclined to increase their sales revenue with other gimmicks such as introducing limited edition and collectable boxes to entice customers. Personally, I have bought this box of mooncakes that had Marvel Comics designs and were said to be limited edition… 😅 Perhaps a stronger push will be needed to change the ways these companies do business and make them put more focus on the quality of the mooncakes instead of the quality of the packaging. BTW, I find it so cool that you’re baking your own mooncakes!
-Jun Yu
Hi Jun Yu!
Thank you for your interesting post.
When I was in China, my family would usually buy a lot of mooncakes. However, my family would always buy loose-packed mooncakes. One reason for that is we think loose-packed mooncakes taste better. However, without sealed packages, mooncakes tend to become expired very soon. That is another reason why we discard mooncakes besides buying too much. On the other hand, if more preservatives are added into the mooncakes, there will be a health problem. Thus, in my opinion, using sealed boxes as packages seems like an acceptable way to preserve the mooncakes and it is not only for aesthetics. Can you accept this as a trade-off?
Hi Zu Ming!
Thanks for reading! I guess with most perishables this is a trade-off that will have to be made to make sure they do not go bad as quickly. Besides, sealed packaging is also important in ensuring our food is safe and hygienic to consume, so I can definitely see why it is a necessary evil. However, perhaps we can push for more sustainable forms of packaging that are more easily recycled or re-used. Here is an article that brings up a few ideas for sustainable packaging, including some interesting ones like edible packaging!
Link: https://healthyhumanlife.com/blogs/news/7-top-sustainable-packaging-innovations
-Jun Yu
Hi Jun Yu,
Great post that garnered some excellent contributions by your peers. Zuming’s is especially good and interesting to me. I’m curious though. He’s saying that the packaging is the tradeoff for not using preservatives. First, can you look at a box of mooncakes with packaging and check the ingredients to see if what he’s saying is accurate ? Second, can you comment on his other premise, i.e., that these preservatives are harmful, from an environmental perspective ?
I like to see students asking challenging Qs like Zuming does here – and the more that the responses can be challenging right back, the more you folks learn to engage in robust debate around an issue.
Also, as a piece of feedback, your blog is turning out great overall – as an area of growth for you, I’ve identified some room to include some primary literature. Could you find a journal article that relates to your topic in any way ?
jc
Hi Dr Coleman,
Thanks for the feedback! I did some googling and according to the Singapore Food Agency, chemical preservatives are used in the production of mooncakes, so it appears that preservatives are still used even in the case of packaged mooncakes to extend the shelf life.
With regards to the environmental impact of using preservatives, this study mentions how preservatives can enter aquatic ecosystems through wastewater discharge. These preservatives can be toxic to aquatic organisms and affect their endocrine system as well. As there are many studies documenting the side effects of preservatives on our health, it would not be surprising that these compounds can have similar effects to other organisms should they find their way into our ecosystems through improper waste disposal/treatment.
-Jun Yu