FRUIT LOGISTICA, ILIP UNVEILS ITS EVER MORE SUSTAINABLE PUNNETS
Designed for strawberries and small fruits and manufactured from R-PET, they are 100% recyclable with the absorbent paper pad to reduce the quantity of plastic used in the packaging. Ilip will also be presenting the Smart Ripe Trolley in Berlin, an evolution of the Smart Ripe technology that can “read” the ripeness of tropical fruit.
Valsamoggia (BO) xx January 2023 – It is only a few weeks until Fruit Logistica and once again, ILIP will this year too be taking part in the important Berlin appointment scheduled for 8th to 10th February, with its innovative fruit and vegetable industry packaging solutions: trays, punnets and fruit nest trays in traditional and heat-formed recycled plastic, designed to protect, lengthen the shelf life of packaged products and satisfy the packaging sustainability criteria increasingly required by industry operators and retailers.
The ILIP range has also been extended with some important new items, which will be revealed at the fair: the B40 punnet, made from R-PET, which stands out for the replacement of the pad with micro-bubbles resting on the base of the packaging with an absorbent paper pad. This insert allows packagers to reduce the quantity of plastic used in packaging while protecting the packed fruit. After use, the punnet and pad can be easily separated and disposed of in separate waste collection systems, respectively as paper and plastic.
Again for berry packaging, ILIP will be launching the B40 Air Wave protective punnet in R-PET, again 100% recyclable, whose rounded base softens any impacts suffered during transport and at the POS, with no need for the absorbent pad in cellulose or a bubble pad.
The sustainable approach drives ILIP not only in innovating the product, but also in the production process. The group’s commitment in implementing the circular economy will be represented by the layout of the stand, situated in pavilion 5.2 – D-80. The wall graphics tell the tale of the T2T R-PET®, acronym for “tray-to-tray” in recycled PET. Ilip closes the circle, producing R-PET trays with the secondary raw material deriving from the post-consumption recycling of other PET or R-PET trays: The ILPA Group, of which ILIP is a member, has vertically integrated the R-PET supply chain and has a cutting-edge recycling plant, where it mechanically recycles post-consumption PET bottles and containers for food to obtain, in line with the circular economy approach, secondary raw materials in the form of flakes, which it can then use in its products. With an annual recycling capacity of 60,000 tonnes of PET, the group helps reduce the environmental impact of the products it recycles and those it manufactures, in order to achieve the Italian plastic packaging recycling objectives, operating in their territory of choice, Emilia-Romagna, thereby achieving circular economy targets in Europe.
Berlin will also provide the opportunity to present an innovation in the field of technological solutions for controlling and measuring the ripeness of exotic fruits. On 9th February, from 3.00 p.m. to 3.45 p.m., Ilip will be involved in the Tech Stage forum organised by the fair and open to all operators, where it will be presenting its Smart Ripe Trolley, a project developed by its Research & Development Department.
Already back in 2019, ILIP had presented the innovative smart packaging for determining the ripeness of a single packaged fruit, in particular avocados. This year, on the other hand, during the presentation entitled “Smart ripe trolley: monitoring the ripening of tropical fruits with RFID sensors”, Ilip will be presenting the evolution, a new system to monitor the ripening of tropical fruits (avocados in particular) for industrial environments using RFID tags and sensors installed on a trolley, the results of which are then displayed on a digital platform. This wireless system has been developed to satisfy the needs of the fruit and vegetable industry and, in particular, of exotic fruit importers and manufacturers of refrigerating and ripening cells with ethylene.
On 8th, 9th and 10th February, it will therefore be possible to discover all the innovations and solutions on which ILIP is working at Pavilion 5.2, Stand D-80 of Fruit Logistica at the Berlin trade fair.