The Primeforma board, developed by Stora Enso for thermoformed food packaging, has now been proven to produce a smaller carbon footprint when used to form a pack for cold cuts than packs that are made entirely of plastic.
This is one research finding of a life cycle assessment (LCA) study completed in the FutuPack EKO 2010 study in Finland. An additional advantage is that Primeforma board can be used on existing packaging lines designed for thermoformed packages, common in this food segment.
Specially designed for thermoforming, Primeforma is a fibre-based board with excellent printability, that can be used instead of plastic as the base or tray part of a cold cuts package. The sealable thin lid is made of plastic film to allow the fresh product to be seen in the modified atmosphere pack. A maximum 13% oil based fossil raw material is contained in the tray, while 87% or more is produced of wood fibre.
This type of solution suits packs containing food slices up to 150 grams.
The LCA study shows that the carbon footprint of the Primeforma package is, on average, 65 – 90% of the footprint left by a totally plastic-based pack. The large variance is explained by varying carbon footprints of different plastic materials used in packs compared to the Primeforma package.
"Our packaging equipment used for making thermoformed packages brings an advantage to food packers, because the brand owner has the option of replacing plastic with Primeforma, up to trays 12 mm deep," says Mr Ulrik Kruchen, production technology expert at Sealpac, a thermoformer packaging machinery line manufacturer in Germany. Sealpac is a main partner of Stora Enso in the production of Primeforma packages.