Page 22 - Packaging News magazine May-June 2022

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FOOD PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | May-June 2022
Vine-to-table grape eco-punnets
Fresh fruit and vegetables company Costa partnered with Gilad Sadan from Navi Co Global to produce the company’s first sustainable hybrid grape punnet. Colleen Bate reports.
FROM vine to supermarket shelf, Vitor’s premium grapes are proudly displayed in fully sustain- able grape punnets on Woolworths shelves around the country, thanks to the partnership between Navi Co Global’s Gilad Sadan and Costa,
Australia’s leading grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables. “The Costa grape team partnered with Gilad Sadan to find an innova- tive sustainable packaging format for our Vitor premium grape product, that would also maintain the quality of our freshly picked grapes from the vines to the lunchbox or grazing table,” says
Helen Reece, Costa’s CMO.
“Costa’s brief to produce these pun-
nets was to come up with packaging to promote the premium nature of the grapes and present the fruit beau- tifully, and at the same time provide functional options and clear on-pack environmental messaging to send con- sumers to online digital content using a QR code,” explains Sadan.
“Most importantly, the packaging needed to provide a more sustainable option than what the industry is cur- rently using, in line with the 2025 National Packaging Targets.”
The punnets clearly display Costa’s intention to meet these goals. The com- pany’s first hybrid grape punnet is made of an FSC cardboard base with a plastic lid made of 100 per cent recycled PET and is 100 per cent recyclable.
“The new format has 80 per cent less plastic than the previous pack, resulting in an overall reduction in the use of plastic,” says Sadan.
CUSTOM DESIGNED
Each of the three Vitor grape varietal packs is designed differently but con- tains a carry handle and is completely recyclable from cardboard to container and lid, with all components made from 100 per cent recycled content.
They are also manufactured in Victoria, aligned with what Sadan tags, “grow it locally, produce it locally.”
ABOVE: The hybrid punnet is made of an FSC cardboard base with a 100% rPET plastic lid, and is 100% recyclable.
“During the pandemic, it was almost impossible to source products overseas, so we made the conscious decision that these punnets had to be fully produced in Australia, from the grapes to the packaging inside,” he explains.
When Sadan conceptualised the punnets, he drew on global trends in this sector, and was attracted to the idea of producing a functional design and construction that would not only enable the punnets to be carried easily but would also allow the cardboard packaging to double up as a grazing platter, when opened.
“I wanted to ensure that the pack- aging not only presented well on the shelf and could be carried easily, but that it would also perform more func- tionally. And so, I came up with the idea for the actual packaging to repur- pose as a picnic grazing platter, which, after use, can be folded up to help discard food scraps and ultimately recycled,” he adds, also pointing out that the on-pack QR code details the functionality of the packaging as an integral part of the design.
Throughout the project Sadan col- laborated closely with the team at Costa to create a prototype and test the structural design of the punnets.
Working collaboratively from the ideation sessions all the way to a factory acceptance test was highly beneficial, he said, as he gained tips at grassroots level from the employ- ees there and was able to fine-tune elements of the prototype to ensure that the punnets fitted well and stayed intact on the conveyer belts and dur- ing the stacking process.
He also had to ensure that the 700- gram grapes would fit into the crates as accurately and efficiently as pos- sible, which he said involved, “lots of accurate measurements, prototypes, and version refinements”.
In addition, since there were the two different components involved in producing the bespoke packaging, Sadan engaged with different suppli- ers, which fortunately were keen to introduce innovation in the market- place as well.
In terms of storytelling, Sadan came up with his own creative style of ‘join- ing the dots’, using embellishments,