Westpak are thrilled to be announced as shortlisted for the category of ‘Sustainable Packaging Initiative’ at this year’s Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Awards. The FDF Awards highlight excellence across various areas of the UK’s food and drink industry with entrants representing each stage of the supply chain and a total of twenty-two prestigious award categories.

This year’s event takes place at London’s historic Roundhouse venue on the 21st September. The Roundhouse is one of the most recognisable live performance venues in the world and has been known for hosting some of the biggest musical acts of all time including Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd amongst many others. This year’s event will also be hosted by Grace Dent, an award-winning restaurant critic who has appeared on numerous TV shows including The Culture Show, The Apprentice, Have I Got News For You and Mastermind.

Westpak’s shortlisting for the Sustainable Packaging Initiative centres on the development and roll-out of the Crave foodservice packaging range which has been developed to provide foodservice providers with an innovative packaging solution that fulfils several core objectives. These include creating a packaging range with genuine, quantifiable sustainability benefits that can be clearly communicated. We also aimed to achieve this without compromising on performance or practicality as well as providing cost-saving benefits through the design itself.

The range has achieved a number of clear sustainability benefits for UK-based foodservice, takeaway and QSR brands. These include being manufactured in the UK, significantly reducing its production carbon footprint against overseas production. Each box is also fully recyclable/‘re-pulpable’ and industrially compostable. The containers are also manufactured from lightweight fibres (driving resource efficiency) which are derived from paper from European paper mills certified with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The inner coating also replaces traditional plastic lamination linings, instead utilising a highly-innovative emulsion-based coating. This coating provides a high level of moisture resistance while remaining widely accepted in standard recycling systems. Additionally, all ‘window’ options are made from NatureFlex™ (by Futamura), a home-compostable cellulose film. The project has also involved engineering a series of practicality features including high temperature resistance, strong rigidity, a stackable design, a secure closing mechanism, lightweight construction, and a non-slip exterior finish.