Mondi, IMA Ilapak and Les Crudettes have won three prizes at the prestigious French packaging awards and the Trophées de l’innovation LSA for a new paper packaging. Mondi developed a recyclable functional barrier paper, which is converted on VFFS machines of IMA Ilapak for a selection of Les Crudettes’ pre-washed, ready to eat salads. The recyclable functional barrier paper allowing Les Crudettes to save 137 tonnes of plastic per year.
Les Crudettes decided to replace the plastic bags for its fresh salads with Mondi’s new packaging. The new solution is 95% paper and verified as recyclable in the waste paper stream in France while keeping the salad fresh for up to 10 days - the same amount of time as with the previous plastic packaging.
IMA Ilapak's R&D efforts have resulted in the first solution specifically designed to perform using paper while ensuring the same performance as plastic packaging materials. The Vegatronic 6000 bagging machines produced for Les Crudettes are part of the Corporate Sustainability Program IMA Zero and IMA NOP (No Plastic).
From right to left: Grégoire Duvot, Directeur Général/Managing Director, ILAPAK France; Sandrine Le Guen, Regional Sales France Consumer Flexibles, Mondi; Alexandre David, Responsable R&D/R&D Manager, Les Crudettes; Géraldine Collet, Directrice Marketing & Innovation/Marketing & Innovation Director, Les Crudettes.
Falk Paulsen, Sales & Business Development Director Functional Paper and Films, Mondi, says: “We worked closely with Les Crudettes and their machine manufacturer IMA Ilapak to ensure the transition to our functional barrier paper was smooth and effective, resulting in a truly ground-breaking packaging that can now be rolled out across other food groups.”
Géraldine Collet, Marketing and Innovation Director, Les Crudettes, adds: “These awards, given by packaging and retail experts, are a recognition of our ground-breaking innovation for the ready to eat salads market.”
Grégoire Duvot, Managing Director at IMA Ilapak France, says: ‘’These 2021 French packaging awards are the result of our IMA Ilapak R&D efforts to run quicker on vertical form fill seal machines when using paper-based material. In line with the IMA group's NOP (No Plastic) project, our ultimate goal, we are accompanying manufacturers towards recyclable packaging, with profound consultancy on machine compatibility of different materials.”
