Birds Eye cuts plastic across frozen vegetable range
From this month through to the start of 2021 the producer will replace existing packaging with recyclable materials while reducing excess packaging – making pack sizes smaller but keeping the same amount of vegetables per pack.
The refresh will apply to six of Birds Eye’s products: Field Fresh Supersweet Sweetcorn; Field Fresh Garden Peas and Sweetcorn; Field Fresh Select Mixed Vegetables; Field Fresh Country Mixed Vegetables; Birds Eye Garden Peas; and Birds Eye Petit Pois.
Sustainability plans
Last month, Birds Eye UK agriculture manager James Hopwood and director of food solutions Steve Cann talked to Food Manufacture about the manufacturer’s sustainability and environmental goals.
Jess Ali, senior marketing manager for vegetables at Birds Eye said the manufacturer’s goal was to ensure all its vegetable lines used recyclable packaging by the end of 2022.
“This is the culmination of a thoroughly thought-out process, balancing our sustainability targets while retaining the elements that shoppers look for in our products,” Ali added.
Reducing food waste
“We know consumers want to see a reduction in plastic used by brands, yet also value the practical, resealable functions of our bags. We’ve therefore made a deliberate effort to find a more sustainable solution, adopting a press-to-close function, which will help shoppers to keep their freezers tidy while reducing the amount of plastic we use across the range.”
The packaging revamp comes at a time that the frozen vegetable category is currently worth £455m, according to data from Nielsen. Recyclable packaging will launch into stores from this month.
Meanwhile, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain Tesco has continued with its campaign to reduce the amount of plastic packaging used across its product lines. So far, that has included scrapping 1.78m pieces of plastic from its Christmas puddings and sponges, plastic trays from its fresh whole chickens and 260 tonnes of plastic from its hard cheese packaging.
