As anti-plastic sentiment builds across Europe, Ilapak, the leading manufacturer of packaging machines for flexible film applications has developed a breakthrough flow wrapping solution for producing plastic-free fresh fruit and veg packs. Key to this breakthrough is a special coating, enabling reliable and glitch-free running of compostable and paper films.
“Consumers are increasingly eschewing plastic packaging, but from a producer perspective, finding an alternative that is cost effective and matches the performance of plastic films is not an easy challenge. In-depth machinery trials also have to be carried out on any new materials to ensure they can be run on equipment. Recognising that consumer resistance to plastic is a growing trend our customers need to respond to, we have invested heavily in R&D in this area. This has yielded a module that allows fresh fruit and veg to be wrapped in compostable or paper films with supporting cardboard trays – satisfying both retailer and consumer calls for biodegradable packaging,” says Christian Romualdi, marketing communications manager at ILAPAK.
Based on ILAPAK’s new Carrera 1500 flow wrapping platform, the new system features a special folding box that enables the flow wrapper to handle paper films and compostable films.
