A round up of MeetingPack 2019

The fourth edition of MeetingPack took place in Valencia, On 29 and 30 May.

The event organised by AIMPLAS and AINIA was a meeting point for more than 350 professionals of the food barrier packaging industry under the slogan ‘Sustainability trends in barrier packaging: towards Objective H2030’.

Attendees could meet the latest innovations in packaging of Danone. One of them was Lanjarón 1.25 litres bottle that is 100 per cent rPET and 100 per cent recyclable, the packaging with the largest quantity of recycled plastic of the brand.

Knauf Industries talked about its latest innovations in expanded polystyrene (EPS) and expanded polypropylene (EPP), introducing two sustainable alternatives that are gaining ground in the food-contact plastic packaging value chain due to their high performance and recyclability.

While, Enplater Group introduced its developments in more eco-friendly films, sheets and trays.

Comexi discussed the challenge of sustainability through the developments of products that combine taking care of the environment and aesthetics. They exhibited packages with visual effects such as transparent windows and paper touch effects as a sustainable alternative to attract consumers.

Cadel Deinking talked about the use of recycled material as a replacement for virgin resins and presented their bags for automatic packaging, which are 50 per cent made of deinked recycled plastic.

Furthermore, SPGroup talked about PE HB ECO packages made of recyclable material with a polyethylene-based structure and high barrier properties and Klöckner Pentaplast introduced, among other developments, an rPET recyclable tray made of at least 95 per cent of recycled material.

Unilever and AMC Juice explained their Circular Economy strategies and how they are addressing the challenge of reducing, reusing and recycling their innovations, introducing their key developments.

Lastly, AIMPLAS and AINIA introduced two projects in which they are participating. The NIASAFE project, focused on analysing, monitoring and minimising the migration of Non-Intentionally Added Substances (NIAS) to food-contact packaging and the REFUCOAT project, which is focused on developing new materials to package food in a more sustainable way. Within this project, barrier coatings are being developed, as well as bioplastics to be used in films and trays as an alternative to the current aluminium-based structures.