Innovation

For over 30 years, Riverford has been growing organic produce across England and France, providing customers with ethically responsible food that supports the environment, farmers, and local wildlife. The company currently uses 82% less plastic in its food packaging when compared to mainstream supermarkets and has a precise aim of ensuring all its packaging meets its environmental agenda.

The market for ultra-fresh salad and vegetable convenience products is growing rapidly. More and more Austrians are turning to the convenient ready-to-eat products. Very often, these foods are packaged in plastic for protection. 

For the second year in a row, Appetite Creative Solutions has help them spread and promote their sustainability message, by merging Tetra Pak’s commitment to the environment, with Appetite’s expertise in web app creation and marketing.

The garden shows how you can plant and grow your own vegetables for cooking at home under Chia Tai’s “Easy and Unique Planting Concept”.

The new seed packaging and garden were launched at “Home Garden Mini Field Day” virtual event. 

A new sorting system for packages at FedEx’s Queen’s, NY facility has proven to provide significant benefits, according to the company. FedEx Ground recently implemented Berkshire Grey’s Robotic Product Sortation and Identification (RPSi) systems at this station, the company announced on August 12. 

Berkshire Grey, a developer of Intelligent Enterprise Robotics solutions, executed the RPSi systems to robotically sort the thousands of small packages that arrive daily in bulk into containers bound for other specific hubs and stations across the FedEx Ground network. 

Businesses selling on Amazon Marketplace can now use this ready to go, pre-certified Bag-in-Box design avoiding the need to go through costly and time-consuming testing at a specialised ISTA certified laboratory to gain FFP certification.

Product innovation is becoming important

The innovative film is made of chitosan, a natural molecule found in shellfish shells. This food industry by-product contains key antifungal properties that curb mould growth. The packaging film also contains essential oils and nanoparticles, both of which possess antimicrobial properties.

"Essential oil vapours protect strawberries. And if the film comes into contact with strawberries, the chitosan and nanoparticles prevent mould and pathogens from reaching the fruit's surface," said Professor Lacroix, expert in sciences applied to food.

Liplid's uniqe lid, adapted to PulPac's innovative Dry Molded Fiber technology, enables MAX Burgers to replace plastic coffee lids in restaurants this year. 

Every year, more than 300 billion plastic lids – 1.5 million tons of plastic – are produced. Many of them end up as litter in the world’s oceans. A Swedish collaboration between three innovative companies at the forefront of sustainability - PulPac, Liplid and MAX Burgers - is now leading the way towards replacing the traditional plastic lid with a sustainable fiber-based alternative.