M-real Shows Cartonboards for Confectionery Packaging

FINLAND—Confectionery consumers are longing for a treat and expecting a touch of luxury, and packaging plays a major role in meeting these requirements. With tempting design, packaging sends out signals to attract consumers, yet at the same time it must be sustainable, cost-efficient, and functional. Additional vital requirements for confectionery packaging are food safety as well as taste and odor neutrality.

M-real, a fiber paperboard producer, provides Carta Solida and Simcote, board grades that meet the requirements of demanding food products. These primary fiber grades are produced using renewable raw materials from sustainably managed forests and can be recycled. Production is subject to environmental and safety standards. “All M-real production plants are ISO 22000 certified,” explains Nina Happonen, manager environment and sustainability, M-real Consumer Packaging.

M-real’s range of packaging boards has undergone continuous development. They have been made light-weight, offer the same stiffness and bulk as heavier conventional grades, but have lower basis weights. This means they can be specified for confectionery packaging without losing a quality feel, but result in cost savings and benefits to the environment through lighter transport weights and less waste at the end of their lifecycle.

Reducing the weight of a board also lowers its carbon footprint, at least in proportion to its basis weight. A 15 percent reduction in board weight equates to an 18 percent reduction in carbon footprint, which is important to users concerned about sustainability. If customers can specify a lighter weight board, provided all criteria regarding stiffness and performance are met, their own carbon footprint will diminish accordingly. In addition, M-real can provide individual product-orientated carbon footprint calculations for its customers.

M-real has also tightened its tolerances, ensuring better consistency in board quality. According to M-real, this results in clear savings and improves sustainability. For example, in board thickness M-real’s target value for consistency is plus or minus 3 percent, compared to the 5 percent considered the norm in the industry. Variations in thickness lead to inconsistency in printing results, as well as stoppages and waste in converting and packaging lines.

Increasing consumer awareness of food safety combined with market demands for longer shelf life set high standards for confectionery packaging. “It is vital that food packaging contains no substances that might change the sensory properties of the product or are harmful when in contact with it,” says Happonen.

M-real’s manufacturing processes reduce the likelihood of taint and odor arising from its boards by choosing pulp and coating chemicals that have minimal influence and maximizing properties in production.

In addition, M-real runs a program of testing boards for taint and odor, primarily by a panel of assessors working to common European standards. With regular calibration of its sensory panels and taint tests in its laboratories, M-real’s results can be considered highly reliable.

For more information, visit www.m-real.com.