These exclusive packs, available in the UK, are designed to be film-sealed and come with a clip lid. The film sealing adds a level of tamper evidency and while the packs are sealed, product freshness and shelf life is enhanced.

RPET is post consumer recycled material (PCR) derived from recycled PET bottles. The thermoformed containers are made from material which contains between 40 and 70% post consumer PET making the packaging more sustainable. Despite the recycled content the performance characteristics include excellent clarity, good crack resistance and excellent gas barrier properties.

“Huhtamaki is committed to use raw materials derived from renewable sources or that are recycled, thus, being able to replace virgin APET with recycled material is a great opportunity for all of us. As households in the UK increasingly have access to local bottle collection services and additional reprocessing capacity has come on stream we believe we can start shifting more and more products to sustainable RPET”, says Andrew Lea, General Manager Sales, Consumer Goods UK.

The availability of food-grade RPET has improved in the UK recently through organized collection and handling enabling Huhtamaki to start using the material at industrial scale. Last year a research commissioned by WRAP*, Waste and Resource Action Programme, a non-profit organization funded by the government in the UK found that 86% of the respondents felt it would be good if packaging contained recycled plastic, and 78% said they would feel more positive about a product or manufacturer whose packs were made using recycled plastic.

The containers have been given a slim design to maximize the packing efficiency for transport and display on supermarket shelves.

The dimensions of the 180g and 300g pots, across the flat sides, are set to enable one additional pot to fit into the same shelf length as five round pots. The new 600 g pot allows five new packs to fit into the space of four round pots.

This extra space utilization reduces transport costs and has an environmental benefit in reducing pollution as reduced lorry journeys. In addition, more products can be stacked on the supermarket shelf. This maximizes sales opportunity by reducing the time shelves are out of stock and also reduces the amount of labor needed to fill shelves.