Packaging protects products from damage not only in transit from manufacture to market but also prevents damage on retail shelves where its job is to attract the consumer. In the case of food and drink products, packaging barrier properties continue to extend their usable life at the place of consumption.
Need for better packaging
Reports suggest, 40% of the food produced globally is lost due to lack of, or inadequate packaging. Growing food requires resources like water and energy, and if the food is wasted, there is a considerable drain on resources and the environment. Harjeet Singh, vice president, exports at Vacmet addressed these issues in his presentation in a recent IIP conference emphasizing the need to reduce food wastage and increase shelf life by improving the barrier properties of packaging.
Vacmet India is a leading manufacturer of polyester films, BOPP films, specialty coated films, and metalized paper and board. Dinesh Chand Agarwal founded the company in 1993 as a specialty coating and metalizing company. The company has, since then, taken a leap in forward integration of coating and metalizing and backward integration by manufacturing polyester and BOPP films and polyester chips. From a capacity of 1200 tons, Vacmet has grown substantially to reach its current capacity of 1,50,000 tons.
The company has five manufacturing plants (four in Mathura and one in Indore) in India. Vacmet has a strong presence in more than 70 countries, including a wholly-owned subsidiary in the UK.
Sustainability and recyclability
According to Singh, “We are working on sustainability where we look for single polymer structures, for example, PET-PET, polyolefin-polyolefin, and also monolayer structures. We are working to covert multi-layer structures to monolayer structures, and on high-barrier films that substitute the use of aluminum foil in packaging laminates.”
Vacmet’s solutions include transparent high barrier PET films suitable for the packaging of dry and wet products. Singh asserts that these films have excellent barrier properties and are best suited for product visibility, for example, cheese, nuts, chips, and meat. The company also offers transparent high-barrier heat seal and non-heat seal BOPP aluminum oxide films with a wide sealing range suitable for vegetables, chips, and nuts.
Sustainability and recyclability are compelling every packaging development professional, manufacturer, supplier, and brand owner to innovate new materials and techniques. Singh believes that if any company is serious about sustainability, it has to deliver both at the operational and product levels to achieve this goal. He explains, “Vacmet pledges to become a zero plastic waste disposing entity by the year 2022 and has continued to recycle 100% of the transparent film waste generated.”
Commenting on the product level effort, Singh states, “Most of the laminate structures use BOPP, PET, CPP, LDPE and AL foil. By using a combination of these materials, manufacturers or converters want to achieve the best combination of barrier properties. However, by combining a variety of raw materials, we lose the objective of recyclability. Vacmet has taken initiatives to produce films that promote same family structures. We have thermally stable BOPP film, highseal strength PET films, lidding films, transparent barrier films, metalized board cartons, and many more.”
Monolayer structure and lidding solutions
Vacmet also offers metalized heat-sealable barrier paper, which can be used as a monolayer and can replace many two and three-layer structures. “In the conventional structure where a combination of BOPP print, MET BOPP and sealant layer was used, the proposed structure uses only ink and metalized heat seal paper (Paper GSM 75 and WVTR < 3.0). Our newly developed heat-sealable metalized barrier paper is best suitable for packing small sachets of herbs, spices, and small Dominos pizzas,” he adds.
In addition, Vacmet’s lidding products offer peelable seals, with or without anti-fog properties, that can replace two or three-layer laminates with monolayer structures. “Vacmet with its wide range of products in PET, BOPP, metalized PET, and BOPP, high barrier transparent BOPP and PET, metalized paper is working to ensure that the shelf life of food is enhanced. At the same time, recyclability and sustainability are addressed, while the use of plastics in flexible packaging, is decreased, ” Singh concludes.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Vacmet stands committed to fulfilling the demands of packaging materials to its customers. The company claims to offer safe working zome for its works and materials following international safety protocols and maintaining social distancing.
