According to the UK-based company’s managing director Kevin Clarke, the new sustainable solution will: “Enable retailers to move away from carbon-hungry CPET and aluminium throughout ready meal retail.”
Tested for durability, wet strength and effectiveness in cooking, KCC’s innovation is said to be “ovenable, microwaveable and compostable”, and to do: “The same job on the same equipment as the trays that are currently in use.”
While the new tray has been developed using by-products from sugar cane production, Clarke says this may change in the future.
“Sugar cane has all the qualities needed except a moisture barrier, so we are applying a coating that is both ovenable and biodegradable,” he says.
The major difference, Clarke adds, is: “A huge decrease in carbon footprint over both CPET and aluminium, which are prevalent for ready meals now.”
Clarke says he has had “hundreds of conversations” with retail buyers to the effect that the carbon-friendliness of packaging is an insufficiently strong factor on its own to facilitate “a step change in the way they pack many millions of items”.
“That’s where the finance director’s interest will be sparked,” Clarke says. “He or she is increasingly going to be looking to reduce the number of carbon credits the organisation needs to purchase, and ready meal packaging is currently a big fat negative on the ‘green’ balance sheet.”
A provider of “eco-responsible packaging solutions” for the food industry, KCC Packaging claims to have been “one of the first companies to launch cornstarch material onto the UK retail scene”.
