India’s
largest multinational flexible packaging materials and Solution Company Uflex
in an endeavour to extend the very use of flexible packaging is particularly
paying a lot of emphasis on developing resource optimized packaging for
essential staples like Pulses, Wheat Flour, Sugar, Salt and Oil.
Talking more about this
initiative, Mr. Jeevaraj Pillai, Joint President, Packaging and New Product
Development, Uflex Limited pointed out, “Flexible
Packaging sector in India will get the real boost when high volume (bulk)
commodity food items like Pulses, Wheat-Flour, Sugar, Salt and Oil are marketed
in packaged form. In India almost 80-85% of unbranded food products are still
sold loose without pre-designated packaging. With steadily increasing demand
from urban consumers for branded high volume commodity food items, we are now
getting a lot of enquiries from popular food brands for developing cost
effective packaging particularly for the essential staples category. We have
recently developed a 2 ply laminated packaging for wheat flour comprising a
specialised Polyester (PET) / specialised Polyethylene (PE) structure.
Two rather dichotomous situations
had to be addressed in manufacturing this packaging solution for Wheat-Flour
(in the 5 Kg Segment). In order to restrict the pricing within 2.5-3% of the
total MRP of the 5 Kg Wheat Flour Pack we had to optimally down gauge the
packaging. Down gauging cannot come at the cost of functionalities and strength
of the pack. Therefore to ensure that the wheat-flour packaging is sturdy
enough with good mechanical properties to withstand the weight of the product
being packed as well as to sustain the rough supply chain conditions,we adopted
a three pronged approach. We modified both the Polyester Film and the Sealant
PE Layer to optimize the overall characteristics of the packaging. Both the
layers were rendered special high dart impact resistant to pass 5 drops from
1.2 m height as per the ASTM standards. We were able to reduce the thickness of
the PE by almost 38% which substantively down gauged the overall packaging.
This reduction makes the packaging light-weight/resource optimized and far more
sustainable than its erstwhile version.
The third and the most important
modification has been registered nano-perforation on the laminate for which we
installed a new machine with the most contemporary software. No other flexible
packaging company in India has this capability.
The nano-perforation helps
dispelling the air while filling the flour inside the pack and also ensures
that no infestation by mites and other micro-organisms takes place resulting in
spoilage of the wheat-flour packed inside. In fact the perforations are
designed just enough for removing the air and restricting the passage of mites.
Further the nano-perforation on the pack also imparts anti-skid properties to
the bag paving way for easy stacking all through the supply chain.”
Expressing delight over the new
development, Mr. Ashok Chaturvedi, Chairman & Managing Director, Uflex
Limited said, “Resource optimized packaging for
bulk commodities, particularly high consumption commodity food items as the
name suggests, entails significant reduction at source. Since the target market
consumption of this product category in a country like India isfairly large,
resource optimized packaging for this segment beholds tremendous potential in
overallreduction of polymer consumption. I am glad that my packaging engineers
have been able to develop this packaging solution which is light-weight,
sustainable and significantly contributes towards extending the use of flexible
packaging for this volume driven food category. Considering that the per-capita
packaging consumption in India is just about 4.5 kg currently, whereas that for
countries like Taiwan, Germany and US is around 19, 50 and 71 kg respectively,
resource optimized packaging for essential Indian staples is a tangible and
definitive step in making flexible packaging a more popular option in India.”
