shelf life

The product, called Apeel, is a plant-based protection used on fruits and vegetables to slow down their rate of spoilage, keeping fruits and vegetables fresher for longer. Apeel gives produce more time which helps fight food waste between the supplier and store and more importantly in the home.

As a nation, we throw away 6.6 million tonnes of household food waste a year and 400,000 tonnes of that is fruit. Every day, we throw away 720,000 whole oranges.

Currently, the coatings are focused on flowers and fruits with inedible skins, however, the companies are investigating opportunities for edible coatings on other fruits and vegetables.

Consumers today expect retailers to minimize food waste by exploring alternatives to plastic packaging which is what inspired the two companies to devise an environmentally-friendly coating. 

The coating sets an alternative in motion that could improve on waste volumes in the value chain.

India’s ethnic snack-food giant Haldiram’s Nagpur has opened its own manufacturing facility for long shelf-life dairy products, setting up a massive dairy facility, with an investment of over Rs. 100 crores.

The brand has tied up with SIG, a leading systems and solutions provider for aseptic carton packaging, leveraging the latter’s pioneering filling machines for aseptic carton packs.

The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Andhra Pradesh’s researchers have developed nanoparticles-powered food packing materials in partnership with other institutes.

Kellogg’s is trialling fully recyclable packaging for its boxes of Corn Flakes, with the replacement of the plastic liner for paper.

The food giant has said it would prefer plastic liners to be accepted in kerbside recycling but the trial of the paper alternative in a small number of Tesco stores from January “ensures we have an alternative”.

While the outer card packaging of the company’s cereals boxes are recyclable, the plastic inner liner is not widely accepted in kerbside recycling.

This saving on plastic use is a win for the environment and Nestlé Professional’s customers as the company moves towards its goal of reducing virgin plastics by one third by 2025. 

“This clever packaging redesign of the popular MAGGI Professional range of 7-8kg gravies and boosters demonstrates how relatively small changes can make a big difference,” Nestlé Professional Oceania general manager Scott Stuckmann said. 

The Cereal+ liner has been created for bag-in-box packaging, typically used for cereal products, and is made from recyclable PE. Coveris adds that the liner has burst-peel functionality for ease of opening and improved puncture resistance.

The liners are also available with additional gas barrier properties for added protection and can be used for both household cereal and catering pack applications. It is manufactured at the company’s Winsford, UK site, which recently announced more than £6 million ($8.4m) of machine and infrastructure investments.

The pouch will initially be available with Uncle Ben’s ready-to-heat wholegrain rice, which is soon to be re-branded as Ben’s Original.

The mono-PP material, unveiled in December, is built on Amcor’s AmLite HeatFlex recyclable film and will be its first application for microwavable food and the first in a stand-up pouch format.

Learnings about how the material runs through Mars’ supply chain will inform a wider rollout in the year ahead.

Following the success of the PaperSeal tray, both the new PaperSeal Slice^® and PaperSeal Wedge offer brands and retailers a recyclable, barrier-lined, paperboard packaging alternative to plastic thermoformed trays for sliced meats and cheeses. Both PaperSeal Slice and Wedge offer enhanced branding capabilities with high-quality graphics that deliver on-shelf differentiation.