Not long after Mars unveiled an Australian barrier paper pack pilot with candy bars—and Nestlé did the same with its KitKat bars—Australian brand Madura Tea shifted packaging materials from metalized oriented polypropylene (OPP) to flexible paper packaging.
“Madura Tea has made the right decision in demonstrating its environmental responsibility by using recyclable materials from sustainable sources,” says Carsten Loemker, lead, engineering/technology, Madura Tea says of the company’s motivation for the switch.
With help from German suppliers Gundlach Packaging Group and Koehler Paper, Madura believes it has found an ideal packaging format for its products in a specific material called Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB 72 gsm. The supplier notes this paper material has a mineral oil barrier and offers protection against mineral oil hydrocarbons MOSH and MOAH. Gundlach Packaging Group and Koehler Paper provided the brand owner with a range of test materials from the Koehler NexFlex product range, and after several promising tests landed on this specific material. Koehler Paper says that Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB is a packaging paper with a significantly reduced carbon footprint in comparison to conventional plastic packaging, and is also 100% recyclable.
 | There have been quite a few recent instances of a shift from metalized films or other traditional flow wrap materials.
|
“Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB—which is made from 100% virgin fiber pulp and is therefore suitable for contact with food—impressed everyone involved thanks to its outstanding barrier properties,” says Yevgen Zolotkovski, sales manager for Flexible Packaging Papers at Koehler Paper.
Like all other NexPlus papers, NexPlus Seal Pure MOB is also heat-sealable, and its high-strength properties make it ideally suited for further processing on all commercially available packaging machines, the company says.
“Although it’s an uncoated paper, the printing results are excellent and highlight the new environmentally friendly concept,” adds Rüdiger Brinkmann, senior sales manager at Gundlach. PW
