Australian tea brand Madura Tea has undertaken a major step towards to lower its own impact on the environment by transitioning to a more sustainable packaging. The brand has switched to flexible packaging paper from its earlier use of metallized OPP (oriented polypropylene). This new packaging that has been developed in partnership with Koehler Paper and Gundlach Packaging Group will be replacing all its metallized oriented polypropylene-made packaging with flexible packaging paper.
Read: July 2023 Issue of Food Infotech Magazine.
Madura had been able to find the right packaging paper for its products, which is the Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB 72 gsm paper for its new solution. This solution features a mineral oil barrier that also provides protection against mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons.
With the paper range being 100% recyclable, it helps further in significantly lowering the overall carbon footprint for Madura Tea.
Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB is heat-sealable and with its numerous strength properties, it is seen as the ideal solution for further processing across all commercially available packaging machines in the market.
Yevgen Zolotkovski, Koehler’s Sales Manager for Flexible Packaging Papers stated – “Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB, which is made from 100% virgin fibre pulp and is therefore suitable for contact with food, impressed everyone involved thanks to its outstanding barrier properties.”
The NexPlus range features a mineral oil barrier, which ensures that the products inside are protected from chemical compounds such as mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons. The products have already been made available in the Australian market.
Rüdiger Brinkmann, Senior Sales Manager, Gundlach stated – “Although it’s an uncoated paper, the printing results are excellent and highlight the new environmentally friendly concept.”
Carsten Loemker, Engineering/Technology Lead at Madura Tea added – “Madura Tea has made the right decision in demonstrating its environmental responsibility by using recyclable materials from sustainable sources.”
With the NexFlex product range, the research and development team at Koehler Innovation & Technology and the experts at Koehler Paper developed a unique and 100% recyclable generation of flexible packaging papers. The aim has been to substitute plastic in packaging with barrier paper wherever it is possible. The range covers a wide spectrum that includes standard coated and uncoated papers used in laminates for pouches, sachets, including in other applications, making them suitable for a wide range of packaging for food as well as non-food products.
The next generation of papers for flexible packaging are sustainable barrier papers with functional surfaces for product-specific protection (Koehler NexPlus). The NexFlex product family also includes papers coated on one side with good dimensional stability and high smoothness (Koehler NexCoat), as well as uncoated paper with a natural appearance (Koehler NexPure). Various flexible packaging papers from Koehler Paper were awarded a score of 19 out of a possible 20 points by the environmental service provider Interseroh, along with the “Made for Recycling” seal.