Berries in a New Tray

With a new tray, which is largely made of paper, SanLucar wants to save up to 200 tons of plastic per year in packaging for fruit and vegetables. The packaging, which was designed for berries, is intended to perform the balancing act between environmental protection and quality assurance.

The fruit and vegetable producer SanLucar reports progress in the search for more environmentally friendly packaging. The packaging, called “natural tray”, consists of 94 percent FSC-certified paper. It is particularly resistant to moisture, the company says. After all, this property is important for the refrigerated shelf. The packaging in 125 gram format is equipped with a perforated film that provides ventilation for the fruit. According to SanLucar, this film can be easily recycled and can be easily separated from the paper. The new concept extends the shelf life of sensitive fruits such as raspberries or blueberries, thus helping to reduce food waste.

Quality assurance as a challenge

“It has been a challenge to work with such a complex product like berries and find the right formula to offer both, our customers and the final consumer, a packaging which is committed to nature, but also to the high quality expected from a brand like ours”, reports Maria Plasencia, Packaging Manager at SanLucar. Revised packaging concepts have already been established elsewhere: The “natural bag” for grapes and stone fruit made of paper and the tray for tomatoes made of cardboard have reduced plastic consumption by up to 600 tons of plastic in the last five years.