Kraft Heinz and Gualapack produce recyclable baby food pouch in Italian market first

03 Jun 2021 --- Kraft Heinz and its packaging partner Gualapack are releasing a recyclable baby food pouch in what is reportedly an Italian market first.

Branded Pouch5, the packs are used for Kraft Heinz’s Plasmon brand and intended to reinforce its “care for the environment.”

Made from monomaterial polypropylene (PP), the company says it is the “first global-scale recyclable pouch.”

“In Kraft Heinz, we believe in the need to reduce the environmental impact in all phases of our supply chain, from the field to the table, from transport to recyclable packs,” says Andrea Budelli, president continental Europe at Kraft Heinz.

“This is possible only when choosing the right counterpart, and Gualapack is the ideal partner. With Pouch5, we are making an important contribution to sustainability in the baby food industry with our local jewel brand Plasmon.”

Monomaterial doypack 
Pouch5 is a 100 percent monomaterial doypack option designed for easy recycling in the PP stream, certified by independent institutes Cyclos-HTP and Interseroh Dienstleistungs. 

“This means that after use, pouches can be collected and turned into new non-food products within a circular economy framework,” says Kraft Heinz.

Pouch5 is compliant with both EU and FDA food regulations and available in two versions: hot-filled and pasteurized shelf-stable products and cold filling or dairy applications. Plasmon baby purees in Gualapack’s Pouch5 doypack with BabyCap.

The pouch also has a high oxygen and water vapor barrier, guaranteeing equal product protection compared to conventional pouches.

Since its launch in 2020, Kraft Heinz says leading baby food, and snack manufacturers in the US, France, Germany and Finland have chosen Pouch5 for its sustainability features.

Child safe
For Plasmon’s fruit purées, Pouch5 is paired with the BabyCap, which is designed according to international anti-choking standards. It features a 33-mm diameter cap and holes that allow breathing in the unlikely case of ingestion.

The company says this feature has become a world-class icon for baby food spouted pouches. 

“Adding Kraft Heinz and its brand Plasmon to the major companies that have chosen the quality and sustainability of Pouch5 allows Gualapack to continue spearheading the recycling revolution toward a more circular economy,” says a Gualapack spokesperson. 

Flexible recycling in Italy 
While Pouch5 achieves technical recyclability as a monomaterial PP, waste management infrastructure in Italy will determine the reality of the packaging’s circularity. 

Italy is the largest producer of plastic goods and the second-largest waste generator in the region. According to WWF, Italians generate almost 4 million tons of waste each year, over 80 percent of which comes from the packaging industry. 

Due to challenges in a waste management capacity in certain regions and hotspots, 13 percent of the waste stream goes uncollected, which leads to littering and leakage into nature. 

Of the waste collected, 26 percent is recycled and reused as secondary material, while 60 percent of all waste undergoes landfilling and incineration.

CEFLEX, which has begun analyzing European waste samples, has also noted a significant amount of ready-to-recycle flexible packaging appearing, “where it is unlikely to be successfully returned to the economy and used again.”

In a sample of nearly 4600 kg of collected waste, over 66.5 percent of flexible packaging found was categorized as recycle-ready mono-material – this includes mono-PE, mono-PP, mono-PET, mono-paper and mono-aluminum.

PackagingInsights explored key trends in baby food packaging with Gualapack, Amcor, AR Packaging, Danone and Wipak earlier in the year.

Edited

By Louis Gore-Langton