Elliott Absorbent Products develops carbon-reduced meat and fish pads with 50% material savings
06 Sep 2021 --- UK-based Elliott Absorbent Products is releasing a range of ultra-thin, super absorbent sealed edge pads for fresh meat and fish, which it claims has the lowest carbon footprint of any such high absorbency pad on the market.
Branded UniDry, the range uses 50 percent fewer materials than traditional pads and is almost 100 percent more effective, says the company. The solution enables customers to achieve environmental compliance, make major material reductions in their packaging and cut emissions from transport and storage.
UniDry is already in use in three major British supermarkets and has been in development for several years, utilizing a proprietary “Infinity Core” that gives blood and water absorbency of between 7.5 L and 26 L per square meter.
“We are doing more with less and providing customers with a product that improves absorbency and shelf life and boosts their sustainability performance,” says Matt Hankins, managing director of Elliott Absorbent Products.
“Existing air-laid pads are bulky and dusty with poor yields. The UniDry range will replace air-laid and SAF pads for absorbencies between 7,500 mL and 25,000 mL (water/free swell).”
UniDry is said to be the lowest carbon emitting option on the market.Absorbing emissions
Company tests revealed that UniDry uses half the cellulose and plastic required to make traditional pads. Due to its ultra-thin construction, it is easier to transport and store, cutting emissions from shipping miles by 66 percent, compared to traditional air-laid pads.
Absorbency tests with a UK supermarket showed that compared to a traditional pad, UniDry was 45 percent more absorbent when used with a typical 600 g lean beef joint, 90.5 percent with a 1.3 kg piece of topside and 278 percent more effective with a 135 g venison steak, says the company.
“These results are outstanding. We have already had lots of interest from UK meat processors and supermarkets who are keen to upgrade. We aim to expand our customer base across Europe and beyond where there is a huge untapped market,” remarks Hankins.
UniDry is available in both pads and reels, white as standard with other colors upon request. The range has full EU migration conformance and is manufactured at Elliott’s state-of-the-art factory in the UK.
Absorber-less innovation
The UniDry range joins a number of other meat tray innovations hitting the market recently, including GravityTray – a thermoform meat tray that permanently traps juices from meat, fish, poultry or fresh fruit in a bottom tray chamber.
The innovation does away with the concept of absorbers altogether, something the company argues consumers find “disgusting.”
Another issue the GravityTray deals with is recycling complications. By omitting absorbent pads, both the tray and the bottom seal of the GravityTrays are made of 100 percent readily recyclable PET and have a thickness of less than 350 MU.
“Of course, the EU legislation on packaging helps our success as well,” he adds.
The EU plastics tax took effect this year, stipulating a €0.80/kg levy based on the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste.
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
