Packaging material

Packaging food is essential to ensuring a high level of food safety and minimise waste. Plastic materials have the right properties for this purpose. However, their use also leads to the depletion of raw materials and significant environmental pressure. As a producer of packaged products, we strive to minimise this environmental impact.

Van Loon Group packages its products for quality and food safety reasons. This applies to all products that Van Loon Group brings to market.

We aim to minimise the environmental impact caused by using (non-recyclable) packaging materials and to use recyclable materials wherever possible, without compromising food safety. We prioritise the use of recyclable packaging materials over the reduction of packaging material. At present, packaging materials which are technically recyclable are not always actually recycled. To make informed and realistic choices, we follow guidelines from the Verpact foundation and the Netherlands’ Knowledge Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV). In addition, the choice of packaging material is always made in consultation with supplier and customer.

In 2024, we extensively tested packaging our end products in recyclable mono-PET trays. Unfortunately, the conclusion was that we cannot sufficiently guarantee either food safety or quality with these trays. Therefore, in 2025, we will begin using a different technique.
 
While our goals are to maximise the recyclability of our packaging material, we also strive to reduce the amount of packaging material. With varying degrees of success. For location Best, we have successfully completed production tests with thinner top-seal film. This would save around 5,000 kilos of material per year. However, due to additional costs, the customer ultimately did not choose to switch to this thinner film .
 
In 2024, part of our organic range was converted from tray to flowpack. An excellent development as this saves about 7,000 kilos of film. However, for the sake of reducing wastage, a customer chose to convert the flowpack packaging back to tray for part of the range. This means we use some 5,000 kilos of extra material. This seemingly contradictory move is a prime example of the trade-off between making packaging materials more sustainable and reducing food waste.

Consumer packaging normally consists of a tray, topseal film and a label, with the tray being the main packaging component. To avoid disrupting the recycling of the tray, the film and label should be of the same material or separable from the tray during the recycling process.

In consultation with the Netherlands’ Knowledge Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV), part of Verpact, we are initially focusing on making the tray recyclable, followed by the label. Our topseal film already meets the recycling requirements for a mono PET tray.

In 2025, we will conduct extensive testing with a tray made of mono PET, except for a thin adhesive layer for the topseal film. Since this adhesive is washable, the tray will meet Verpact’s recycling requirements. We expect to be able to use the recyclable trays in our production by the end of 2025. This will involve approximately 100 million trays per year.
In 2025, we will also simultaneously adapt the labels to ensure the entire packaging is fully recyclable.

As for making flexible packaging (films) recyclable, no practical tests are planned yet for 2025. However, an inventory will be carried out to determine which films are already suitable, which are not, and what steps can be taken in this area.

To reduce the amount of packaging material, in 2025 we will switch the film used for packing our bulk products from 60 µm LDPE to 40 µm MDPE. Thanks to the enhanced properties of MDPE, the film can be made significantly thinner, which will save us around 18,000 kilos of film annually.