Sonoco equips French sugar brand Cristalco with fiber-based sprinkler container
28 Jun 2024 --- Sonoco is outfitting French sugar brand Cristalco with a cardboard container equipped with a PP sprinkler for its Daddy Sugar brand. The new 500 g pack switches out a previous plastic container and is fully recyclable.
The container previously consisted of a PE body entirely covered by an oriented polystyrene sleeve and a PP lid.
“We’ve improved the sprinkler so that the icing sugar pours out better,” explains Julie Moréac, head of Packaging Development and Technical Support at Cristalco. “We wanted the lid to be as eco-designed as possible while still retaining its core functionalities.”
“It needed to offer easy dispensing, opening and closing, and a tamper-evident seal. Meanwhile, the lid had to retain its shape and not ‘ovalize’ despite us reducing the amount of material use to form it. These posed significant challenges to overcome.”
Five years of R&D
Containing 80% less plastic than its previous iteration, the launch comes after five years of work, six technical studies and multiple life cycle analyzes to define the best concept and material choices.
Sonoco’s cardboard container comprises 68% of recycled fiber and comes with a PE film inner liner to preserve the contents and limit sugar caking by protecting it from humidity.
The PP lid (produced by Rovip) has two openings, one with six small holes for sprinkling, while the other has a wider opening for pastry-making.
“In addition, the lid is held in the can, without glue, to prevent potential contamination and to keep the amount of materials used to a minimum,” adds Moréac.
“The challenge here is securing the lid securely into the cardboard body, the diameter of which can change by as much as a few tenths of a millimeter.”
Cristalco’s plastic reduction
Cristalco has reportedly cut down the amount of virgin plastic in its primary packaging by 80% since 2019. This compares with a reduction of 64% just before the Sugar Daddy switch to rigid paper containers.
The new Sonoco rigid paper containers are available on supermarket shelves, under both the Daddy and Erstein brands, from June 2024.
Sebastien Fabre, strategic account manager at Sonoco Consumer Europe, says: “We’re always delighted to help companies reach their sustainability goals by reducing non-recyclable materials in their packaging and helping them to find an alternative solution. We’re pleased to have been part of that solution for Cristalco and look forward to working with them into the future.”
In other food packaging headlines this week, Aldi is outfitting its own-label chips packaging with recycled plastic in a “UK supermarket first.”
Meanwhile, Thai Union tuna brand John West rolled out a patent-pending canned tuna tower, EcoTwist, with each can of tuna held together by a SmartStrip, which can be broken by twisting the cans so they detach from one another.
