Claimed to be highly moisture and grease resistant, the new fibre-based pet food sack can be recycled in existing fibre recycling streams

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The new fibre-based pet food sack from UPM Specialty Papers and Fiorini Packaging. (Credit: UPM)

UPM Specialty Papers has partnered with paper sacks manufacturer Fiorini Packaging to create a sustainable, fibre-based sack for the packaging of pet food applications.

According to UPM Specialty Papers, the new product, which will be showcased at Interpack 2023, can be used for up to 20kg of pet food.

Claimed to be highly moisture and grease resistant, the new fibre-based pet food sack is available to order from Fiorini Packaging. It can be recycled in existing fibre recycling streams, said UPM Specialty Papers.

Fiorini Packaging president and CEO Giovanni Fiorini said: “In this partnership with UPM Specialty Papers, we wanted to find a solution without using plastic laminates.

“The answer came in a unique composition that incorporated our Moistshield technology in a double layer of paper on the inside, supported by an additional UPM Asendo Pro barrier paper layer on the outside for grease resistance.

“This new solution is completely PFAS free; often PFASs – or forever chemicals – are needed to achieve the desired grease barriers.”

The recyclable UPM Asendo Pro is a coated two-side barrier paper designed to give high grease resistance. Apart from that, it offers medium resistance to moisture and a mineral oil barrier.

UPM Asendo Pro is free from per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) and is safe for direct contact with food.

Fiorini Packaging’s Moistshield is a technology solution that provides water-repellent properties without the requirement of plastic laminates. The technology is claimed to have a high surface tension that lets the water slip away instead of being absorbed by the paper.

UPM Specialty Papers Italy sales director Marco Tramontano said: “We realised that, by uniting our technologies, we could create a new paper-based sack that could offer similar levels of moisture and grease resistance as a conventional sack with a plastic laminate layer, or even higher.

“By using UPM Asendo Pro as an additional high grease resistance barrier for the external layer, this innovation has boosted existing MoistShield properties while also offering an excellent print surface.”

Recently, UPM Specialty Papers alongside SN Maschinenbau jointly developed a recyclable fibre-based pouch for dry, frozen, and greasy foods.