Sustainable packaging solutions

The packaging of a food product is primarily intended to protect the shelf life of the product and to ensure product safety. Packaging also plays a significant role in reducing food waste.

Apetit uses mainly plastics and paperboards as product packaging materials. In addition, glass is used in Neito rapeseed oil bottles. Wood is used in the palletised transport of product batches. Plastics are used as packaging material in many Apetit products: for example, all frozen vegetable mixes come in plastic packaging. Apetit rapeseed oils are also packaged into plastic bottles.

Recyclability of packaging materials on the rise

The degree of recyclability of Apetit’s product packaging increased in 2023 when recyclable packaging was introduced for frozen potato products, oven and grill vegetables and some export products during the year. The change increased the use of recyclable packaging materials by more than 22,000 kilos annually. In 2023, in Apetit products sold in retail stores, the share of recyclable packaging materials was 77 per cent.

In Apetit products sold in retail stores, approximately 46 per cent of packaging materials used by Apetit are renewable. When it comes to plastic packaging, approximately 43 per cent are made of recyclable materials and 1 per cent are made of renewable materials. In Apetit’s corporate responsibility programme, one of the goals is to increase the use of recyclable packaging materials to 100 per cent. Also the labelling on packaging has been developed in connection with labelling updates, especially with regard to recycling instructions.

Apetit is gradually switching to PEFC-certified paperboard in its frozen soup packaging. The first soups in PEFC-certified paperboard packages were available in shops in September 2023.

Some of Apetit’s products are packaged in recyclable Green PE packaging. Green PE is made of ethanol refined from sugar production by-product and does not contain fossil raw materials.

Apetit reports the amounts of packaging material it puts out into the market in accordance with the EU Packaging Directive and pays recovery fees for the organisation of material recycling.