Pro-Gest introduces 100% recyclable paper tray for retail
Pro-Gest has launched a purpose-built tray that prolongs the shelf-life of foods, displays better performance from an organoleptic point of view, and inhibits maturation of packaged products.
Pro-Gest presented the new Pillow at the Marca fair in Bologna as a patented solution for replacing traditional plastic trays with 100% recyclable and compostable paper and polystyrene.
Pillow is classed as a new generation product intended for large-scale retail trade which, thanks to its particular composition, is able to absorb liquids and oily substances from fresh foods packaged as vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, meat, fish and cheeses, avoiding stagnation inside the packaging and thus ensure the highest levels of product healthiness.
Analyses, performed by an Italian laboratory that studies food contact, compared the shelf-life of food stored in traditional plastic and polystyrene packaging and food stored inside the new Pillow. The shelf-life was monitored and determined in particular by the investigation of microbiological indicators (moulds, yeasts, CBT, enterobacteria, coliforms, etc), chemical indicators (appearance of degradation substances, loss of aromatic components) and organoleptic indicators.
The analyses show that with the same food and storage conditions, the patented Pillow tray is able to preserve the aromatic profile more than other packaging while maintaining performance in line with other materials, while the panel tests have also shown that the degree of deterioration of foods packed in traditional plastic packaging was higher than those stored with Pillow.
Valentina Zago, general manager and manager of the packaging food contact & take away sector commented: “With Trevikart’s Pillow, in the year of our fiftieth anniversary, we offer the market a paper product, 100% recyclable and compostable and without the use of plastic or polystyrene.
“A product that we believe is capable of fundamentally changing the appearance of our supermarkets, still linked, to this day, to a large use of traditional packaging. From an environmental point of view, Pillow is the most responsible choice that a consumer can make, without prejudice to the conservation and quality of the product guaranteed by our packaging. We are convinced that Pillow represents a huge step forward in the world of large-scale distribution, capable of satisfying the demand for greater packaging sustainability for consumers.”
