As part of our Finalist Interview series we spoke to Lantmännen Unibake Finland about its food-safe cardboard box with a barrier paper inner, designed in collaboration with UPM Specialty Papers and Adara Pakkaus to replace plastic inner bags for retail and food service. The product has been nominated in the Commercialized Climate category of the Sustainability Awards.
You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2024. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarise your entry, in less than 50 words?
Together with UPM Specialty Papers and Adara Pakkaus, Lantmännen Unibake Finland has co-created a food-safe, fibre-based, recyclable cardboard box with an inner surface made of barrier paper developed by UPM Specialty Papers, eliminating the plastic bag traditionally used inside cardboard boxes to ensure food safety and quality standards.
Why do you think the judges were impressed with your entry? Tell us about what is innovative about your project and/or about its impact on packaging sustainability.
As a part of a global bakery group specializing in frozen bakery products for retail and food service, Lantmännen Unibake Finland is actively searching for more sustainable solutions for packaging and transporting frozen bakery products. With this new packaging innovation, plastic bags are no longer needed inside transportation cardboard boxes for frozen breads as UPM’s Asendo barrier paper is used in direct food contact as the inner liner of the corrugated cardboard box.
The recyclable packaging paper developed by UPM Specialty Papers provides the necessary grease and moisture resistance, while ensuring food safety and freshness of frozen breads. Eliminating the plastic bag is one step towards reaching Lantmännen’s climate targets.
Finally, can you tell us about the ongoing development of your project, e.g. how your innovation/initiative has been received by the industry, or what the next steps are in commercialization/product development?
Brand owners have ambitious sustainability targets, especially related to recyclability and reducing fossil-based materials with renewable fibre-based solutions. Value chain members develop intensive solutions that meet the targets.
The innovative solution at hand was commercialized for frozen bread less than a year ago. The solution has been received positively by end-users. Frozen bread is one end-use, and the solution has a high scalability potential to also protect other foodstuffs. The solution has received a lot of interest globally.
The winners of the Sustainability Awards 2024 will be announced at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, taking place in Amsterdam on 12-13 November. The Summit mobilizes leaders of the FMCG value chain, policymakers, NGOs, recyclers and investors to collaborate, remove barriers and identify opportunities on the road to sustainable transformation.
To learn more or register, visit: https://www.packagingsummit.earth/2024
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