Aran Group, an Israeli bag-in-box manufacturer, has unveiled a fully recyclable product for long-distance food transportation, ahead of its launch at the beginning of 2024.
The second generation of the Premium Flex bag-in-box builds on the product launched in 2021, which was engineered to prevent flex crack, an issue frequently encountered in long-distance liquid food transportation.
Traditional solutions for preventing flex cracks require additional materials, including foamed polystyrene, and packaging operations to fill the empty space in the barrels. Whilst polystyrene is safe for food in solid state, it can post health risks after repeated exposure in its foam state.
Premium Flex 2.0 addresses the challenge by using a combination of layers which are designed for recyclability. Aran Group eliminated the internal metallised nylon layers from the previous product and replaced them with polyethylene layers. One of the internal layers includes a thin layer of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH). Functional barriers like EVOH are used in plastic packaging to protect the goods from any unfavourable external conditions including exposure to UV light, oxygen, vapour, or odour. They help in keeping goods fresh and prolong their shelf life. However, barriers can have a detrimental impact on the quality of recycled material at the end of life of a package.
The Israeli manufacturer designed the second-generation Premium Flex for recyclability by keeping the EVOH layer at less than 5% of the overall material. The packaging is thus classified as mono-material packaging that can be fully recycled in the polyethylene recycling stream. It weighs less than 500 g per 220-litre bag.
According to in-house lab tests, the new product supports logistical transport distances of up to 8,000 km, whether by sea, land, or air, a significant improvement compared to the 2,000 km allowance of other bags on the market, Aran Group said in a statement.