ITALY – UPM Speciality Papers, a subsidiary company of paper mill company UPM, has partnered with paper sacks manufacturer Fiorini Packaging to create a sustainable, fiber-based sack for the packaging of pet food applications.
UPM Specialty Papers, who will be showcasing the innovation at Interpack 2023, says the new product can be used for up to 20kg of pet food.
The company adds that packaging pet foods can be challenging due to high levels of grease. The standard papers typically used for pet food packaging are unable to offer the level of resistance to grease and moisture needed, notes UPM.
Claimed to be highly moisture and grease resistant, the new fiber-based pet food sack is available to order from Fiorini Packaging. It can be recycled in existing fiber recycling streams, said UPM Specialty Papers.
Fiorini Packaging president and CEO Giovanni Fiorini said: “In this partnership with UPM Specialty Papers, we wanted to find a solution without using plastic laminates.
“The answer came in a unique composition that incorporated our Moistshield technology in a double layer of paper on the inside, supported by an additional UPM Asendo Pro barrier paper layer on the outside for grease resistance.
“This new solution is completely PFAS free; often PFASs – or forever chemicals – are needed to achieve the desired grease barriers.”
The recyclable UPM Asendo Pro is a coated two-side barrier paper designed to give high grease resistance. Apart from that, it offers medium resistance to moisture and a mineral oil barrier.
UPM Asendo Pro is free from per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) and is safe for direct contact with food.
Fiorini Packaging’s Moistshield is a technology solution that provides water-repellent properties without the requirement of plastic laminates.
The technology is claimed to have a high surface tension that lets the water slip away instead of being absorbed by the paper.
UPM Specialty Papers Italy sales director Marco Tramontano added: “We realized that, by uniting our technologies, we could create a new paper-based sack that could offer similar levels of moisture and grease resistance as a conventional sack with a plastic laminate layer, or even higher.
“By using UPM Asendo Pro as an additional high grease resistance barrier for the external layer, this innovation has boosted existing MoistShield properties while also offering an excellent print surface.”
Recently, UPM Specialty Papers alongside SN Maschinenbau jointly developed a recyclable fiber-based pouch for dry, frozen, and greasy foods.
For all the latest packaging and printing industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
