Fresh produce packaging: Top tier

At a time when supermarkets are being urged to create a plastic-free aisle in every store, the NPD team at the Alexir Partnership have been working hard with carton packaging designers to create pack formats that are suitable for the top tiers of fresh produce.

The Halopack®is a board-based MAP capable food tray produced from sustainable cardboard. It is designed to extend the shelf life of daily fresh food over conventional carton-board tray options due to an extensive EVOH barrier, thus reducing food wastage. The cardboard packaging has a patented design that is fully sealable with a unique inline production system for optimal conservation of the packed product. The Halopack® has been presented with numerous major awards in Europe since its conception and M&S was the first retailer to use the innovative packaging format in the UK.

The Halopack is a great example of a pack format made from two materials that work well together. Unlike other pack formats there is no plastic laminate and the thin peelable liner can be easily detached from the cardboard. A bare minimum of plastic is used with 90% being made from recycled cardboard.

The film can be removed from the board by the consumer and both remaining elements can be placed into separate waste streams.

We have also been working on a range of carton pack formats that can be produced in many shapes and sizes. The carton board naturally illustrates that the products are more organic or premium due to its nature. Furthermore kraft and hessian effects can be printed onto the trays. The punnets can be 6 or 8 sided, square or rectangle, giving the special produce a real point of difference. The flanges on the punnet also mean that the punnet is heat sealable giving a top seal.

The Alexir Partnership are unique in the UK in that they are the only business in the food sector that can create, package and pack products from design to delivery within one enterprise.