The Hamburg-based company One.five is supplying the Bluemorph high-barrier paper for the new packaging of the plant-based hard cheese alternative „Old Italian“ from vegan cheese manufacturer Vanozza. The changeover means that the product is being offered in packaging that can be recycled in the paper stream in the food retail sector for the first time.
This means that a plant-based product meets a packaging solution that is also designed to conserve resources. This symbiosis is increasingly being demanded by manufacturers, consumers and retailers alike. Until now, the „Old Italian“ has been packaged in non-recyclable stand-up pouches made of paper-plastic composite material. With Bluemorph from One.five, Vanozza is replacing the previous packaging with a high-barrier paper with a paper content of over 90 per cent, which is recyclable in the waste paper stream.
High barrier paper for complex food applications
The Bluemorph high-barrier paper was developed by One.five specifically for complex requirements in the food and non-food sector, for which plastic or non-recyclable composite materials have predominantly been used to date. The material reliably protects sensitive products from external moisture and at the same time prevents them from drying out. Thanks to its particularly high flavour and fat barrier, it is ideal for sensitive food applications.
A shelf life of several weeks can be guaranteed for fresh food, while conventional products can even achieve a shelf life of 12 to 24 months.
The barrier of the paper solution is therefore on a par with conventional petroleum-based plastic packaging and is also suitable for sensitive products such as plant-based cheese alternatives. The material is also compatible with standard FFS machines and enables a CO₂ reduction of up to 45 per cent compared to conventional plastic laminates.
„Our aim was to develop a paper-based solution that would also work where there were previously hardly any alternatives to composite materials,“ says Martin Weber, co-founder and Managing Director of One.five. „The fact that Bluemorph is now being used as packaging material for vegan cheese on the food retail shelves at Rewe Nord shows that our high-barrier paper fulfils the practical requirements of retailers and manufacturers.“
Use in retail
The use at Vanozza is one of the first commercial applications of Bluemorph in the German food retail sector. Against the backdrop of new regulatory requirements for recyclable packaging - in particular the planned EU packaging regulation (PPWR) - One.five is already in talks with other manufacturers and retailers. Further applications are currently being tested in various segments (e.g. confectionery, food supplements, yeast, butter, dishwasher tabs, cosmetic products), accompanied by machine, filling and storage trials.
Source: One.five
