Nicholl Demonstrates Its Sustainable Credentials

Combining a sustainable pack format with effective product presentation and protection has been central to the development of the Nicholl product portfolio in recent years.

Jan 6 2012 --- The many sustainable benefits of the tray packing solutions offered by Nicholl Food Packaging will be a key theme of the company's stand at Ecopack 2012.

Nicholl offers a wide range of trays for all types of food applications including ready meals, convenience foods and fresh and frozen products. As well as its established expertise in aluminium foil trays, the company's widened portfolio now includes fibre pulp trays, paperboard trays enhanced with plastic coating and rim, thermoformed trays, dual-ovenable board trays, ovenable greaseproof paper bakery trays and film lidding, in order to meet an even wider range of customer requirements.

Combining a sustainable pack format with effective product presentation and protection has been central to the development of the Nicholl product portfolio in recent years. For its own aluminium foil tray ranges, the company has been a leading player in Aerofoil, a major recycling and awareness-building programme undertaken by Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation, which has enabled foil to qualify for the 'Widely Recycled at Recycling Points' labelling under the British Retail Consortium's On-Pack Recycling Label scheme.

Nicholl's Micro-Rib tray offers a number of resource efficiencies, thanks to its lightweight properties and advanced manufacturing process, which deliver noticeable environmental benefits. The tray features cutting edge tool design which, along with Nicholl's ongoing development of alloys, offers manufacturers the lowest weight food tray while still delivering the strength and appearance of a traditional smoothwall tray. The tray incorporates a minimum 12% less material compared to standard trays, with no reduction in cubic capacity.

Another recent innovation, SKINfoil, combines the convenience of an oven or grill tray with the superior extended shelf life of vacuum packaging to deliver pack minimisation, reduced food wastage, no leaking, product protection and enhanced product presentation.

Other sustainable pack initiatives from Nicholl include the Saica Form tray, Oliver Pulp Tray, an ovenable paper bakery tray and Stora Enso DeLight.

The Saica Form tray is manufactured in clean room conditions in corrugated board from up to 100% recycled paper, and is both biodegradable and recyclable. It offers a more sustainable alternative to plastics, demonstrated by a 'cradle-to-grave' Life Cycle Analysis that has revealed a carbon footprint 64% less heavy than EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) trays and 76% less than a PET tray. Saica Form is suitable for a wide range of foods including fresh fruit, bakery, meat, prepared meals and take-away products.

Oliver Pulp Trays are manufactured from 100% pre-consumed material, which is both recyclable and compostable by commercial recyclers, offering a 100% renewable resource solution for food trays. Manufactured to food grade standards, they are suitable for oven temperatures up to 204°C, can be microwaved, and are freezable to -40°C. Typical applications include fresh and frozen products, ready meals and convenience foods.

The new TO 109 R Paper round ovenable bakery tray is made from renewable wood pulp, offering excellent barrier properties and the ability to be used in both convection and microwave ovens.

DeLight is a brand new ovenable paperboard tray suitable for MAP applications. It combines high quality, premium product presentation with a strikingly different appearance, and its hybrid construction provides a sustainable solution that matches the environmental concerns of today's consumers.

"Sustainability continues to be one of the main drivers in the packaging industry and a dedicated show such as Ecopack gives us the ideal opportunity to demonstrate the many initiatives we are adopting to help support our customers' environmental objectives," comments John Griffiths, Nicholl Food Packaging's Chief Executive.

This feature is provided by Food Ingredients First’s sister website, Packaging Insights.

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