India-based flexible packaging materials and solution firm Uflex has developed a customized formulation to allow barrier packaging for edible-oil re-processable.

The development of the specialized formulation is a part of firm’s commitment towards sustainability and circular economy.

Uflex Packaging and New Product Development joint president Jeevaraj Pillai said: “Edible oil needs to be carefully protected from oxygen that makes it rancid. Barrier properties in a coextruded film for edible-oil packaging are imparted by Nylon and/or EVOH.

“However, it is the presence of these two elements that makes the packaging of edible-oil non-reprocessable.”

Pillai said that the specialized formulation renders barrier packaging for edible-oil re-processable regardless of the presence of Nylon and/or EVOH.

The firm said that the new formulation allows edible oil manufacturers to easily fulfill their recyclability commitments by using barrier packaging with specialized formulation.

Uflex chairman and managing director Ashok Chaturvedi said: “Considering that edible oil category is the largest packaged food segment in our country, one can well imagine the massive global boost India as a Nation will get in terms of sustainability and promotion of circular economy if it is able to reprocess all the barrier packaging for edible oil.”

Last year, the firm has introduced a speciality polymeric film to replace Bi-axially Oriented Polyamide (BOPA) or Nylon Film from flexible packaging material.

The new speciality film can be used for manufacturing packaging material for all products that use the nylon substrate.

At that time Pillai said: “There is an encouraging demand for this film for manufacturing packaging material for various pharmaceutical products, distilled goods,fatty and oily food and agricultural products among others.”

The BOPA is extensively used in food packaging, especially for fatty and oily food, distilled goods packaging, agricultural products packaging or medical products