Packaging supplier Coveris has launched a breakthrough in creating a more sustainable packaging to cheese, a food product that has complex shelf-life requirements and high-speed packing demands. Together with food manufacturer Ornua Foods, Coveris has developed a fully recyclable polyethylene (PE) monolaminate structure with a built-in barrier for Tesco’s grated cheese.

This MonoFlex BE is set to replace mixed triple-ply nylon laminate, a traditionally hard to recycle type of packaging. It delivers the current shelf-life requirements and features a resealable zip for convenience and a customisable surface that’s printable with matt lacquer.

Sustainability is also achievable as each bag reduces plastic weight by 680mg, resulting in 411 tonnes of plastic to be recycled every year. About 32 tonnes of plastic is also removed from the overall supply chain.

Mark Robinson, Coveris’ UK Flexibles Technical Sales Manager also added “To have delivered a first-to-market, fully recyclable monolaminate for cheese is a real win for us and a game changer for the whole industry. Once again, we’ve proven our capabilities in developing new sustainable performance films and if we can do this for as technically complex a product as this, then we look forward to the next challenge”.

Gordon Walsh, Commercial Director at Ornua Foods UK commented “Sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do at Ornua Foods; it is an area that has huge significance to our retail partners, and ultimately our consumers. We pride ourselves in working together to achieve our goals and are delighted that this partnership between Coveris and Ornua Foods UK will deliver such a great benefit for our planet.”

Denise Mathieson, Senior Packaging Manager at Tesco said “We’re really excited to have worked with Coveris on this new material, it is yet another step closer to realising our ambition of single polymer packaging which is much easier to recycle”.