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Recyclable label on packaging

Image: iStock

Sustainable plastics on the rise

23.10.2024

Consumers’ growing environmental consciousness leads to added pressure on the packaging industry to develop sustainable solutions. In this context, sustainability is not limited to bio-based or bio-degradable materials. Conventional fossil-based plastics can also be part of sustainable strategies – if they are designed for recyclability or produced using recycled raw materials.
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Hand and cup

Image: Woodly Oy

Woodly – made of wood, looks like plastic

23.09.2024

Wood-based substitute material for plastic offers the food industry new sustainable options. Finnish start-up and SAVE FOOD member Woodly supplies wood cellulose polymers for various packaging solutions and products such as reusable cups. The carbon-neutral material is particularly useful in ensuring that bread is hygienically packaged while staying fresh for a long time and looking appetising.
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Artificial intelligence

Image: iStock

Artificial intelligence for more process quality

23.08.2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important part in the future in optimising processes within the food industry. It can lengthen the shelf life of food by allowing precise control of temperature and humidity, for example. AI analyses huge amounts of data in real time in order to guarantee optimum recipes and storage conditions and minimise spoiling.
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Depending on composition, the colour of the final product may vary.

Image: Constanze Tillmann

Kombucha leather – packaging from the tea lab

25.06.2024

The packaging industry is looking for creative solutions to package food both safely and sustainably. A young team of students and researchers in Istanbul is currently working on prototypes of SCOBY, a leather-like biofilm made from fermented kombucha tea.
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Children in front of full plates.

Image: SIG

Cartons for Good project wins SAVE FOOD competition

13.12.2023

1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted globally every year. With their project Cartons for Good, the SIG Foundation is using the SIG know-how to reduce theses losses. With a specially developed bottling station, the team supports communities in poorer countries to preserve food locally – and was able to win in the project competition by the SAVE FOOD Initiative.
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Food packaging with compostable extrusion coating

Image: BASF

Compostable coating for food-safe paper packaging

13.06.2023

Barrier properties are particularly important to food packaging. Consumers are additionally demanding solutions that are environmentally friendly. BASF has developed an extrusion coating for paper and cardboard packaging, which may be composted both industrially and domestically.
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The SoVi app’s user interface being displayed on several mobile-phone screens.

Image: SonicView

Designing barrier-free packaging

16.05.2023

No packaging, no product protection. But how can the visually impaired be sure about what they’re putting in their shopping baskets? A German designer has come up with a clever solution to this problem.
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A tattooed hand holds a plastic water bottle.

Image: Jonathan Cooper/unsplash

How useful are PET bottles?

16.05.2023

People need water. And it has to be brought to them somehow. That’s where packaging, e.g. PET bottles, is important – particularly in areas where the groundwater is polluted. A study commissioned by Lidl, the German discount supermarket, revealed that it’s quite possible for plastic bottles to be sustainable in the right conditions.
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Three women in front of laptops.

The students worked on the research project in six teams. (Image: BAU)

SAVE FOOD research project: New food packaging from leftover food

18.04.2023

Food production generates a lot of residual material, which is usually not put to use but disposed of. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for alternatives to plastic packaging. Biodegradable and compostable packaging can be a sustainable solution, especially if it is made of leftovers from food production.
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Close image of a toy robot

Is automation the end-all and be-all? (Image: Rock'n Roll Monkey/unsplash)

Where does automation help in packaging?

10.03.2023

Trend topic or permanent issue? Everybody is talking about automation. However, switching to fully automated packaging solutions is anything but a guarantee for success. Small and medium sized companies should consider several things before investing in large machinery.
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Biobased plastic wrap made from coffee grounds

As part of the WaysTUP! project, Aimplas has produced a plastic wrap from coffee grounds. (Image: Aimplas)

Plastic wrap from coffee grounds

14.02.2023

The project WaysTUP! is looking for new use options to maintain organic waste in circulation for longer and to use it as secondary raw materials. The Spanish centre for plastic technology Aimplas is using coffee grounds to make biobased polymers for flexible packaging.
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Sausage in a recyclable film wrapping

The new film by allvac is suitable for wrapping foods and has a high degree of recyclability. (Image: allvac Folien GmbH)

Recyclable wrap for food packaging

16.01.2023

Film wrapping can achieve an appetising presentation of foods at the PoS. For composite films, their ability to be recycled is especially relevant. allvac has achieved confirmation from the cyclos-HTP institute that their new wrapping film is 100 percent recyclable.
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A person explores the touchcap bottle closure with an index finger.

Tactile nubs form on the surface of the cap as soon as the contents of the bottle are no longer fit for consumption.

A closure fighting food waste

24.10.2022

Too much food is still being thrown away around the world, even though it may still have a shelf life. Together with United Caps, a London start-up has now developed a bottle cap that provides information about the edibility of the contents beyond the best-before date.
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The washing and racking system from KHS

The Innokeg AF-C Transversal can wash and rack returnable and one-way kegs on just one system. (Image: KHS Group)

500 kegs per hour on one conveyor belt

24.09.2022

In the early days, a keg tap was simply driven into the wooden keg with a hammer, but today modern returnable kegs are connected to tap systems. However, after use, they need to be washed and then refilled, or racked. KHS, a Dortmund-based machine manufacturer, has now developed a system that can wash and rack different types of kegs using a single conveyor belt.
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Bundles of empty beverage cartons

Used beverage cartons on the way to the recycling plant. Photo: FKN

Benelux to recycle beverage cartons

17.08.2022

Beverage cartons are not waste, they consist of valuable raw materials that can be recycled. Stora Enso and Tetra Pak want to build a complete recycling system for the composite cartons in Belgium and are currently assessing the project’s feasibility.
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A man in a supermarket looking at a package.

Image: AdobeStock

Less material needed to produce sealing films

21.07.2022

Films are an important part of packaging: They provide an impenetrable barrier between the product and the environment. That said, industrial handling of such sealing films is not always simple. A cooperation between Plasthill and Constantia Flexibles has now led to the development of a PE film which uses less material, thus leading to reduced CO2 emissions, yet has greater seal strength.
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Sealing system with a big pack ready for closure, side view

Image: SSB Wägetechnik GmbH

Vacuum-sealed closures for bulk goods

22.06.2022

Food or building materials present special challenges for the filling and closing process. To make sure that the surroundings stay clean and product safety is guaranteed along the entire supply chain for bulk powders, vacuum seals are used for filling and closing.
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A person attaches a QR label to a wrapped cheese loaf.

Image: CFPR

Digitisation you can print

19.05.2022

For many packagers, labelling products correctly is part of their daily business. But digitisation has now entered this field as well. As a result, some manufacturers are working on combining tried and tested labels with bits and bytes.
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