As consumers continue to champion sustainability, brands and businesses are finding themselves deeper in the era of the value-driven consumer, with shoppers increasingly in favour of buying products that do not have a negative impact on the environment.
In search of more sustainable solutions, Multivac and DS Smith teamed up to design and produce Eco Bowl, an innovative solution for fresh foods based on corrugated cardboard, to serve the food production and retail sectors in Europe. Eco Bowl is a fully recyclable corrugated cardboard tray covered with a film lid that reduces plastic by up to 85% compared to similar trays currently found on the market.
To eliminate excess packaging – and with one in two European people reportedly sorting and recycling their waste at greater levels than they did five years ago – Eco Bowl’s lid can be easily removed for separated disposal, leaving the corrugated tray behind for recycling. Eco Bowl is designed to run on Multivac’s thermoforming packaging machines and tray sealers and guarantees an equal or in some cases even an improved shelf life compared with conventional modified-atmosphere packaging for fresh food.
Eco Bowl has already been tested in the market with Amidori, a producer of vegan and vegetarian foods for retail. The German producer of plant-based meat alternatives chose Eco Bowl and successfully implemented the solution at the end of 2019.
Marc Chiron, Sales, Marketing and Innovation Director at DS Smith’s Packaging department, commented: “We’re thrilled to see the success Amidori is having with Eco Bowl. “This is a great example of the benefits that customers can reap when they choose to implement this new generation of packaging innovations into their supply chains. “The innovation behind Eco Bowl demonstrates the strides that DS Smith is taking to encourage greater sustainability within the retail landscape.
“Through our partnership with Multivac, we are committed to driving the circular economy at a greater scale.” Bernd Lasslop, Vice-President Partner Products and Consumables at Multivac, commented: “We are constantly working on innovative solutions to reduce the quantity of packaging materials, and on packaging concepts that meet the current requirements in terms of resource efficiency and recyclability. “Eco Bowl is yet another example of these efforts.”