The Halopack ® by Alexir has made its packaging debut and sits proudly on shelf in the prepared meal section in Marks & Spencer as part of their Taste of the British Isles range.
The Halopack®is a board-based MAP capable food tray and is produced from sustainable cardboard. It is also 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 seal-able with a unique in-line production system for optimal conservation of the packed product. The Halopack® has been presented with three major awards in Europe since its conception and M&S is the first retailer to use the innovative packaging format in the UK.
The team at M&S spent many months creating the range of fish and chips in order to recreate ‘local chippy’ favourites. M&S worked with Five Star Fish in Grimsby (part of the 2 Sisters Group) to source the fish and develop the complex batter. Five Star Fish supply frozen and chilled coated fish into the food service market and major retailers, coating over 8000 tonnes of fish per year, with cod and haddock being the nation’s favourites. It was important to M&S that the batter was not only the right flavour but also had the right texture. This was achieved in five steps: coating the fish with wheat flour, using the right amount of baking powder and gluten in the mixture, adding some ‘fizz’ into the batter, like beer, to guarantee texture and flavour and finally cooking the batter and not the fish, so when the consumer heats it at home the fish cooks and the batter stays crisp.
The range includes Beer Battered Cod & Scraps, Whole-tail Scampi & Chips, Cider Battered Plaice Fingers, Cider Battered Plaice, Whitebait and Haddock, Scraps & Chips.
“I saw an opportunity for the Halopack ® to be used within our business and the route to market with M&S was a great fit as the Halopack ® can be hermetically sealed with the additional benefit of the board and film components of the tray being easily separated by the consumer. Alexir were good partners in the project management and in delivering a smooth launch.”
Halopack® was ideal for this project as it is one of the most rigid, hermetically sealed board trays in the retail market. Furthermore, the material used in the manufacture complemented the newspaper-wrapped fish and chips design. The result is a fantastic looking range and a product offering that gives stand-out on shelf against other formats; we trust it will be a huge success for M&S”.
