Consumer need for sustainable packaging in retail bakery continues to rise in 2024, becoming the third most crucial product purchasing decision behind food safety and shelf life.
Studies conducted by Boston Consulting found that 59% of consumers are less likely to buy products in packaging harmful to the environment, and 47% won’t purchase products in harmful packaging. Another study concluded that 25% or more shoppers would pay 10% or more for products with sustainable packaging.
Yet, if sustainability is rising to prominence with bakery consumers, why do so many U.S. bakery producers continue to pay to package and ship air in non-sustainable packaging (up to approximately $6600 per truck per trip), never seeking innovation to satisfy consumer needs and bolster their bottom line?
SHIPPING AIR?
A typical 1.5oz bag of potato chips is approximately 43% air by volume. Every bag is typically packaged in any variation of aluminum-layered Polypropylene (BOPP/ VMCPP) or Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) foil structures – all injected with gases to preserve product integrity and freshness or protect product during transport.
And all minimally sustainable due to their multi-layered compositions, filling landfills faster every year.
Opting for Air Over Sustainable Packaging
But filling the bag nearly halfway with air isn’t simply relegated to chips. Across the baking industry, products such as cereal, granola, crackers, and others are consistently being injected with air and put in traditional pillow packaging, costing producers more in sustainability, production, and shipping while decreasing the value for consumers in an already inflated retail landscape.
Is this the ideal way for producers to package and ship baked product when customers are clearly clamoring for better sustainability
Certainly not.
“If a producer hasn’t adopted more sustainable packaging innovations, it’s usually because the product needs air or gasses inside the package, they don’t know of any, aren’t in a place to be replacing equipment, or have an existing, yet inconsistent, process for getting air out of the package before shipping (cross seal band pressure, sponges, or even perforations),” said Hugh Crouch, Packaging Product Manager at Harpak-ULMA.
A GREENER ALTERNATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE BAKERY PACKAGING
Yet, in response to heightened consumer sentiment concerning sustainable packaging alternatives, some producers are starting to see the greener forest through their challenging trees. Many of the biggest names in bakery are moving away from traditional packaging methods and actively seeking sustainable innovation. Those who have are being rewarded handsomely with MASSIVE production savings and fulfilling eco-friendly packaging goals set down by their customers.
Few solutions for sustainable innovation in bakery have received as much notoriety as the Tight-Bag™ packaging system from ULMA Packaging.
WHAT IS TIGHT-BAG™ TECHNOLOGY?
The Tight-Bag™ system works in tandem with ULMA’s Vertical Form Fill & Seal (VFFS) applications (vertical bagging) to extract precise amounts of air within product packaging. This eliminates the need for perforations and ensures leak-proof, contamination-free packaging for a broad assortment of bakery, snack, and confectionary products. The system’s adjustable air extraction also maintains product integrity, appearance, and stability while reducing almost all product movement, optimizing package size, and reducing material waste.
TIGHT-BAG’S™ SUSTAINABLE RIPPLE EFFECT
Ultimately, opting for innovation such as the Tight-Bag™ system for VFFS allows bakery producers to enhance efficiency, increase production savings, and optimize packaging sustainably at every stage.
Like a ripple in a pond, the sustainability benefits build on each other from the start until they reach and impact every aspect of the packaging cycle, including reduced waste and cost for primary packaging, increased product count for secondary packaging and palletizing, and carbon footprint for shipping and logistics.
How? We examine the superior sustainability advantages of the Tight-Bag™ packaging:
Sustainability & Compounded Savings in Primary Packaging with Tight-Bag™
In bag-in-box products, removing the air from the packaging optimizes the package size by up to 20% without removing any product. This package optimization, in turn, reduces the size of the carton.
Preliminary testing with Tight-Bag™ has shown that it reduces the length of each package by approximately 5mm (.20 inches) and the bag width by 10% without losing any of the product’s portion weight. Alone, these savings seem minute. However, the savings become significant across 110-180 products per minute (ppm), 24-hour production cycles, and 300 days of production on average.
In fact, if using Tight-Bag™ on one packaging application saves you the baking industry average of $.01, one penny, per package, the annual production savings in materials alone can be staggering:
.01 x 180ppm = $1.80 per minute
$1.80 per minute x 24-hour cycles = $2592 per day
$2592 per day x 300 days of production = Up To $777,600 In Annual Material Savings
You can also factor in materials – up to 37% savings when using recyclable High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) vs. metalized films – and compounding the aforementioned savings across the number of packaging applications you install or replace. With raw materials among the top three bakery business challenges this year, according to BEMA’s Baking & Snack’s 2024 Capital Spending Study, material savings should and will play a leading role in purchasing decisions.
Cascading Sustainability Across Cartoning & Palletizing with Tight-Bag™
The sustainability benefits don’t end with primary packaging. Reducing the materials with Tight-Bag™ at primary packaging reverberates sustainability advantages across the other packaging stages during production to the end.
The reduction of the bag size at primary packaging impacts the subsequent size of the outer box (if applicable for both bag-in-box and non bag-in-box formats) utilized for both the cartoning and palletizing stages of packaging.
Though scales differ based on product shape, size, and film usage, estimates project that a 5mm (approx. .20 inch) reduction in materials and bag size results in a 3mm (.11 inch) reduction in external materials and box size.
Additionally, Tight-Bag™ also reduces the size and overall thickness of the outer box, for individual bag-in-box products like cereals, or transport boxes with multiple bags inside, by approximately 15%.
These reductions allow for an increase of up to 15% in the number of packages cartoned and layered onto pallets, ready to ship.
More Product, Fewer Shipments, Maximum Sustainable Efficiency
The additional 15% of palletized product will only do a little on its own to benefit overall sustainability or better your bottom line. However, retail bakery is about volume.
When factoring in the high volume of product being shipped to markets across the country, we see efficiency, earnings, and sustainability – specifically reduced carbon footprint from shipping and logistics – increase exponentially with Tight-Bag™ integrated into production:
10 Additional Boxes = 1 Additional Case
1 Additional Case X 1 Pallet Per Shipment
50 Pallets Per Shipment = 500 Additional Products Per Shipment
10 Shipments Per Day x 300 Days of Operation
= Up to 1.5 Million Additional Products Shipped Per Year at Reduced Cost and with Fewer Shipments
Moreover, as Tight-Bag™ packaging is void of additional internal air, each package is dimensioned perfectly to the bag volume inside the cartoning box. This precise dimensioning allows outer boxes to be thinner (by approximately 10%) than other non-Tight-Bag™ formats, improving sustainability, and maintaining the level of stability and protection for shipping and transport.
“The modern baking sector is focused on reduced materials and more efficient shipping and transportation, said Josh Becker, Bakery & Confection Segment Manager for Harpak-ULMA Packaging. “When you reduce your packaging materials, you can fit more products in a case and on a pallet, which means better usage on the tonnage of your shipping trucks.”
INNOVATION IS BAKERY’S SUSTAINABLE TODAY & TOMORROW
The rising consumer demand for sustainable packaging in retail bakery reflects a pivotal shift in purchasing decisions. Studies show that a significant percentage of consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly packaging, making it clear that sustainability is not just a trend but a necessity.
Embracing sustainable innovations, like ULMA’s Tight-Bag™ system, drastically reduces waste, optimizes packaging, and improves profitability. By adopting these sustainable practices, bakery producers can meet consumer expectations and drive significant production savings.
Talk to the experts at Harpak-ULMA today, and let us help your business achieve a greener, more profitable future.
