Ingredients supplier ditches black plastic

Roll-out of the new white tubs starts this month, with the first products to benefit from the new, sustainable packaging set to be SQF’s Chef William range of gravy, soups, bouillons and salt. Customers are scheduled to see the new tubs from June.

Commenting on the new tubs, marketing manager Richard Oke said: “White plastic is more environmentally friendly than black and can be more easily sorted for recycling by large machinery.”​

‘Greener packaging products’​

“This reaffirms our commitment to sustainable working practices in response to increasing consumer and client demand for greener packaging products. We're committed to ensuring that SQF is at the cutting edge of sustainable packaging technology.”​

The news followed SQF’s pledge in February to ensure all its packaging was recyclable or compostable by 2022.

An increasing number of food and drink firms have begun moving away from using black plastic packaging for their products, in a bid to cut down on waste.

In August last year, ice cream manufacturer Kelly’s of Cornwall pledged to replace all of the black plastic​​ packaging used in its Clotted Cream variety with silver plastic, which is easier to recycle.

Away from black plastic​

Owner Froneri’s UK head of marketing Charlotte Hambling said: “More widely, in the UK, Froneri is also looking at all alternative solutions to move away from the use of Polystyrene, to more preferred recyclable options. And we have no plans to use black plastic in any further product development.”​

June of the same year also saw meat alternatives manufacturer Quorn announce plans to remove black plastic​​ from its packaging range, in a move that would eliminate 297t of non-recyclable plastic from its supply chain.

Meanwhile, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee is launching an inquiry into plastic packaging for food and drink​​, aiming to track progress on developing eco-friendly alternatives and how they perform.