Graphic Packaging International, a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging, has launched PaperSeal® Pressed, a unique innovation that combines the affordability of a pressed paperboard tray with the high-performance benefits of a secure hermetic seal for modified atmosphere packaging applications. This breakthrough expands the company’s award-winning PaperSeal tray portfolio, complementing existing solutions like PaperSeal Original and PaperSeal Shape to offer a full spectrum of options for high-volume, price-sensitive fresh meat packaging applications such as pork, minced meat, and poultry. With its cost-efficient production process, PaperSeal Pressed provides brands and retailers with an alternative to plastic trays, enabling them to extend the use of PaperSeal trays across their entire fresh protein range—from entry-level to premium offerings.
PaperSeal Pressed reduces plastic content by approximately 85 percent versus traditional plastic trays, is made primarily from paperboard containing third-party certified wood fibre, and is recyclable in household waste streams.
This technical breakthrough sees a pressed paperboard tray combined with a high-barrier liner that is applied after tray forming, effectively addressing the well-known challenge of micro-leakage on pressed trays and delivering a shelf-life equivalent to plastic trays.
“PaperSeal Pressed represents an exciting innovation in paperboard tray technology,” said Tom Garsed, general manager, Tray & Cup Solutions-International at Graphic Packaging. “Our engineers have solved what was previously considered an impossible challenge, creating an effective hermetic seal on a pressed paperboard tray. This creates new opportunities for brands and retailers to move away from plastic trays for fresh protein categories, where price sensitivity has made this a challenge.
“PaperSeal Pressed aligns with our goal of creating packaging solutions that are more circular than traditional alternatives by using primarily renewable resources. For our customers, it provides excellent functionality, operating seamlessly on existing tray sealing equipment, thus eliminating the need for capital investment, and it delivers optimal performance through the supply chain. For consumers, it delivers the convenient packaging they demand – effective, easy to recycle, and containing less plastic.”
PaperSeal Pressed has been engineered to run on existing form-fill-seal equipment, further removing potential barriers to transitioning from plastic to paperboard trays and boosting operational efficiency for the packer.
The tray offers significant branding real estate for high-quality print on both the inside and outside of the tray, creating differentiation and impact on the retail shelf, something that plastic trays need the addition of labels or sleeves to achieve.
