Ilip Launches New Fresh Food Packaging Solution

Bologna-based Ilip announced today it is designing and manufacturing packaging for fresh produce using NatureWorks™ PLA. Ilip’s new packaging will be sold in fresh produce sections of retail stores throughout Europe. Produced by Cargill Dow, NatureWorks PLA is a bio-based polymer derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources, such as maize.

Bologna-based Ilip announced today it is designing and manufacturing packaging for fresh produce using NatureWorks™ PLA. Ilip’s new packaging will be sold in fresh produce sections of retail stores throughout Europe. Produced by Cargill Dow, NatureWorks PLA is a bio-based polymer derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources, such as maize.

Ilip is one of Europe’s largest producers of packaging for agricultural products, making a wide range of punnets, trays and fruit inserts. In addition to NatureWorks PLA, Ilip uses PET and polypropylene for its packaging applications. "The quality performance and competitive advantage of using a maize-based polymer for food packaging led us to NatureWorks," says Riccardo Pianesani, vice president, Ilip. "We’re confident that retailers will be receptive to our new packaging and hope to have products packaged in NatureWorks PLA on store shelves by early spring 2003." Premiering at Fruit Logistica 2003, Jan. 16-18 in Berlin, the new produce packaging solution uses Cargill Dow’s proprietary NatureWorks PLA, which offers retailers an environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional plastic packaging. The high performance characteristics of NatureWorks, such as strength and clarity, make it perfect for fresh produce applications like the rigid container Ilip is producing.

Nature-based NatureWorks PLA gives retailers a valuable opportunity to separate themselves from the competition by offering a natural-based packaging for a natural product, in this case fresh produce. "Package clarity is extremely important to consumers when gauging the freshness of a product," explains Lisa Owen, rigids leader, Cargill Dow LLC. "NatureWorks is a very clear packaging material that offers fresh food retailers the opportunity to separate their product from the competition." NatureWorks PLA is the world’s first source of high quality packaging material for fresh foods that comes from an annually renewable resource and is fully compostable. Unlike traditional plastics, which are petroleum based, NatureWorks PLA is made using an abundant supply of carbon found in maize to produce a resin. The end-result is a resin called polylactide (PLA) that can require 20 percent to 50 percent less fossil fuel than petroleum-based plastics.