Consumables
M-real showed high-performance cartonboards with excellent sensory properties at ProSweets 2009
Monday 16. February 2009 - Increasing consumer awareness of food safety combined with market demands for longer shelf life set high standards for confectionery packaging.
M-real, one of Europes leading producers of primary fibre cartonboards was able to advise visitors to Prosweets 2009 on the best way to control the sensory properties of packaging materials and ensure that products are kept free from unwanted taint and odour.
M-real also showed its range of cartonboards designed with properties especially for the confectionery market, including Carta Solida and Simcote. All are made from pure virgin fibre, sourced from sustainable, well managed forests. They are manufactured under the highest environmental and safety standards, with ISO 22000 certification held by all its mills,
“Our customers are very aware of their responsibilities towards the consumer in respect of health and safety, and we are continuously developing our products in order to help them do this,” said Tiina Karppinen, Research & Development Manager for M-real Consumer Packaging. “As well as protecting confectionery from external contamination, we have to ensure that the packaging is itself not a source of substances affecting the sensory properties of the food and be safe to come into contact with it.”
M-real described how its manufacturing processes reduce the likelihood of taint and odour arising from its boards, including choosing pulp and coating chemicals that have minimal influence, and taking care of the cleanliness of the manufacturing process. A good example is BCTMP (bleached chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp), which used in M-reals Carta Solida, that ensures excellent sensory properties thanks to its high purity.
In addition, M-real runs a programme of testing boards for taint and odour, primarily by a panel of assessors working to common European standards. With regular calibration of its sensory panels and taint tests in its laboratories, M-reals results can be considered as reliable.
M-reals range of packaging boards has undergone continuous development. They have been light weighted so that they now offer the same properties of stiffness and bulk as heavier conventional grades but in lower substances. This means they can be specified for confectionery packaging without losing a quality feel, but result in cost savings and benefits to the environment through lighter transport weights and less waste at the end of their lifecycle. M-reals boards also offer very high consistency and printability, increasing efficiency throughout the value chain.