New Trays Take Flowfood To Number One

4th September 2008, 4:35pm

New packaging solution is safe to handle, secure in transit, brings strong environmental credentials

One of Britain's top providers of community meals in the UK, Flowfood Ltd, has taken a significant step towards greener packaging by adopting an innovative, environmentally-friendly meal tray system which is already the preferred packaging for more than 70% of the US senior meals market.

Flowfood, which operates across the UK and produces more than 50,000 top quality meals every week, is replacing its plastic 'c-pet' and metal food trays with Olipak from Oliver Products. The move will bring the benefits of Oliver's selection of multi-compartment, environmentally friendly paper pulp trays to more than two million users every year.

Olipak trays stay cool to the touch but bring freshly-sealed, hot food straight to the table. The trays can be frozen to minus 40°C and heated to 205°C in conventional or microwave ovens.

The trays also bring big safety advantages because they provide greater rigidity when heated and the film seal adheres firmly to all inner compartment edges helping prevent spillage or mixing of sauces or liquids in transit. All of these benefits are particularly important for users who may have handling or mobility issues.

The move by Flowfood comes after a major strategic review of their business to ensure the company's operations reflect best practice in environmental responsibility and customer care.

General Manager of Flowfood, Emma Leonard, said "As one of the top independent, third-party meal providers in the UK, we needed to reflect our customers concerns about the environment as well as demonstrating a positive approach to caring for our end-users.

This move means we have had to invest time and energy in seeking out the best solution in meal packaging and ensuring it fits with the complex logistics of preparing and distributing more than two million meals a year to exacting nutritional and hygiene standards. But it means we will also become number one when it comes to reducing our environmental impact and caring about how our products are perceived."

Oliver Products has been serving the USA food sector for more than seventy years and research across the US reveals that the new Olipak system is by far the preferred choice of professional ready meal providers and their clients in the USA. The company launched into the UK early last year and already provides trays and tray sealing machines to more than twenty local authority kitchens and third-party providers.

Oliver's Peter Prior said, "This is a significant contract for Oliver not least because of the exceptional regard with which Flowfood is held in the community meals and meals-on-wheels markets. We are delighted with this decision and the winners will be the users and the environment."