Coveris has launched a new range of fibre-based hot-to-go packs, targeting growing demands for hot eats and hoping to reduce waste through its recyclable ‘heat in pack, eat in pack’ product.
Citing research from MealTrak, the company claims the UK food-to-go sector is bigger than ever, after the slump of COVID-19 drove a 66% year-on-year drop in sales six weeks into the UK’s first lockdown. Coveris also highlights statistics by Kantar, which state that volumes were up 20.8% last year, and adds that according to IGD, the UK food-to-go market is now set to reach £29.1bn by 2028.
The company claims that, due to consumer trends favouring food-to-go premiumization, experimentation, convenience, increased emissions, and a greater need for value, the hot-eat segment is ‘one of the biggest opportunities’ for food-to-go; retailers like Pret a Manger, Greggs and Morrisons have all invested heavily in hot infrastructure.
Coveris says its HEAT pack range aims to support these consumer trends and meet market demands for sustainability, efficiency and waste reduction. The packs apparently utilize a fibre-composite, ‘dual-ovenable’ printed board to enable hot-to-go products like pastries, wraps, potato wedges, goujons, pastas and pizzas to be cooked in-pack, merchandised in-pack, and then eaten in-pack as a hot-hold solution.
In pursuit of waste reduction targets, the packs are said to be recyclable and feature advanced heat retention and protection, to provide a fully-enclosed fold-up board solution with no requirement for additional wrapping.
The packs were recently launched for Rollover chicken nuggets and jalapeño cheese poppers, and are currently available at hot-food counters in convenience retail and forecourts nationwide.
Back in April, Westpak launched its HeatWave packaging in an effort to improve the heat retention of delivery and takeaway pizzas by over 20%. Westpak states the Heatwave packaging has been designed as a liner sheet that fits into existing standardized cardboard pizza boxes.
In a reported ‘industry first’, last month H-Pack announced it had developed standalone, premium containers made of kraft paper with accompanying PET lids, gearing them towards high-end hot and cold foods. It is anticipated that the packs will be utilized by players in the food-to-go market including delis, farm shops, farmers’ markets, and specialist, upmarket food retail outlets.
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