&ldquowhen we choose the paperboard for chocolate packaging, the decisive factor is taste and odor neutrality,&rdquo said tom du caju, du caju printing & packaging, belgium. &ldquoof course the paperboard must be suitable for the construction we have chosen but if we do not minimize the risk of the chocolate acquiring an offtaste from the packaging material then the rest does not matter.&rdquothis is how tom du caju and his colleagues at du caju printing & packaging describe their experiences in food packaging. du caju is located in erpemere, just west of brussels. with almost 50 employees and annual net sales of eur 10 million, the company regards itself as a mediumsized belgian converter. of the packaging du caju produces, 85 percent is food related and 11 percent is chocolate packaging.&ldquoin addition, just over 10 percent of what we do is packaging with direct contact between the food and the packaging material,&rdquo said key account manager koen penne. &ldquowe are choosing our food contact materials such as paperboard very carefully to avoid taint, odor and migration problems.&rdquodu caju has been working with the world&rsquos largest chocolate producer, barry callebaut, for more than 25 years. the converter is regularly asked to create sophisticated promotional packaging for callebaut as a sales tool and brand enhancer. the latest creation, the origin box, has an outer box made of a browncolored specialty paper from james cropper, colorscope bitter chocolate 350 gsq m. inside the box are samples of chocolate from many countries. each sample is packed in a wedgeshaped box made of incada silk 300 gsq m from iggesund paperboard. the box also features a wheel giving information about the different types of chocolate. the wheel is printed on invercote creato 400 gsq m, also from iggesund paperboard, and is covered with the same material as the outer box.the brown material has a matt appearance and a natural look. the brown color and the uncoated sides give a good indication of the look of chocolate. the origin box was a finalist in the ecmapro carton european packaging award competition in 2014.&ldquowe have learned from experience that only virgin fiber is good enough for this type of packaging,&rdquo said erwin heeren, an experienced purchaser at du caju. &ldquoin choosing materials we also get support from our customer, barry callebaut, who tests all packaging materials for up to sixty days in its own sensory laboratory.&rdquoas a purchaser he must also keep up to date with both the environmental debate and the discussion about how mineral oils in recycledfiberbased materials can contaminate packaged foods.&ldquowe are following the mineral oil debate with great interest, as are our most knowledgeable customers,&rdquo heeren said. &ldquohowever, we are not seeing any increased demand for traceability certificates for paperboard materials &ndash neither fsc nor pefc. that demand is constant at between three and five per cent of our total volume.&rdquoiggesund paperboard, sweden 4665028256 www.iggesund.comfor related articles, news, and equipment reviews, visit our packaging & bagging equipment zone 
