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FOCUS: BAKERY
Wrapping sweetness for a lifetime
As 2021 came to an end, Futamura is celebrating a sig- nificant milestone in the history of its packaging films. With 85 years of twist wrapping individual sweets, the com- pany’s CellophaneTM films were used for the first automated twist wrap machines. In the early days, they were often re- ferred to as a ‘transparent paper’ as they were made from renewable wood pulp. Over the years, the films became synonymous with confectionery wraps, being established as the packaging of choice thanks to their excellent technical performance on the packaging machinery and aesthetic ap- peal.
Its inherent dead fold properties push Cellophane as an ideal choice for twist wrapping. The films ran extremely well on packaging machines, static-free, wrapping at high speeds with an incredibly low level of miswraps. They also held their twist naturally, without the need of heat sealing or adhesives. This meant that the wraps could be easily opened, even by younger
consumers – a must when you wrap sweets!
In the last 20 years, ac- knowledging the growing demand for environmen- tally responsible packag- ing, Futamura launched NatureFlexTM films. Na- tureFlex is certified for home composting by TUV Home compost and meets European and in- ternational norms for industrial composting including EN13432 and ASTM D6400.
‘Breaking the plastic wave’
Whilst it is widely seen
that all companies and au-
thorities making statements and committing to the path of mechanical recycling, it is becoming increasingly apparent that recycling will not be the solution for all applications. The study ‘Breaking the plastic wave’ made it very clear that there is no silver bullet: the industry must use all options available to resolve the current packaging end-of-life issues.
Today, brands and waste management operators are ac- knowledging that small format flexible will be extremely dif- ficult to handle and recycle. Small format, traditional twist wraps fall into this category: small by definition and often scrunched up or torn, rendering them even smaller.
In this specific application, using a compostable film such as NatureFlex enables a positive end- of-life: consumers can simply place it in a home compost bin and the film will break
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down within 6 to 8 weeks. As facilities develop, industrial composting will also become an option, and this is certainly already happening in some European countries such as Italy and Ireland. Both options – home and industrial composting – enable the production of soil enriching compost. Finally, in the unfortunate event that sweet wrappers were littered, then NatureFlex wrappers would certainly break down, with a lower environmental impact than ones produced with conventional plastics.
According to Futamura Sales & Marketing Director, Andy Sweetman; “the combination of exceptional wrapping per- formance coupled with an enhanced end-of-life solution make NatureFlex the logical choice in small format flexible applications such as twistwrap”.
Renewable and compostable
When it comes to twist wrapping, NatureFlex films of- fer a renewable and com- postable alternative. They are most effective on packing machinery. SACMI Chocolate Spa., a machine manufacturer who began in 1907, under the ear- lier name of Carle & Mon- tanari, has been producing wrapping machines for sweets since 1957, regular- ly runs NatureFlex on their machines. Valentina Berga- mi from SACMI Chocolate Spa Sales and Marketing Department said, “Nature- Flex is a very reliable mate- rial, with all the features a material needs to have when running on a wrap- ping machine: elasticity to withstand the traction in the unwinding process, where the film is unwound from its reel and fed to the wrapping area. Rigidity, so the film can be pushed through the feeding unit of our wrappers where it is cut to length right on top of the product. And last, but not least: elasticity to be twisted and memory effect so that
the twists are held and don’t re-open.”
“We have tested various versions of NatureFlex with
various looks, transparent or metallized, and the material passed with very good results through our trials. This is why we actively recommend it to our clients seeking for new eco-friendly alternatives to plastics”, Bergami added.
NatureFlex films are used to wrap many different brands of sweets, from your family’s favorite colorful chocolates, to niche vegan brands.
(Source: Futamura)
www.ameft.com