Immediately after Nestlé's announcement that it would Smarties in paper Mars Wrigley has announced that the Balisto chocolate bar will also be packaged in paper-based packaging. But for now, it's just a test.
Mars Wrigley, together with its retail partner EDEKA Minden-Hannover is now offering a chocolate bar in paper-based packaging. For the approximately 100,000 9-pack multipacks of the classic Balisto bar in the honey-almond variant, more than 90 per cent of the packaging for both the individual bar and the outer carton is made of paper.
According to the confectionery manufacturer, this practical test will reduce the use of packaging plastic by around 440 kilograms during the test period alone. The sustainable Balisto multipacks will be available in more than 500 EDEKA stores in the region from February.
Balisto is not the only pilot project
The Balisto Pilot is just one of many projects, which are to be launched worldwide in all Mars divisions this year. The company's goal is to make all packaging reusable, recyclable and compostable by 2025 and to reduce the consumption of virgin plastic by 25 per cent.
It doesn't work without a barrier
Chocolate places high demands on packaging. On the one hand, it must optimally preserve flavour and quality and, on the other, reliably protect the product from contamination and moisture. The packaging developed for Mars from special paper consists of more than 90 percent natural fibres and is FSC® and PEFC(TM) certified. A thin barrier coating protects the chocolate and prevents it from leaking to the outside.
The project will show how the paper material proves itself in practice, for example during packaging in the Viersen factory, during transport and on the shelf. Another decisive factor for success is how customers accept the sustainable packaging. All the insights gained will be incorporated into the future design of the packaging for the Mars chocolate bar portfolio.
Source: Mars GmbH
