Jujo Thermal is developing a totally new, environmentally friendly specialty paper, aimed at flexible and sustainable food packaging. The new product has superior barrier properties to protect the content and to maintain its quality. It is a viable alternative to food packages that presently use barrier films made of plastic or aluminium. Therefore, the new product will significantly help to reduce the use of plastics in packaging.
Jujo Thermal´s new product is a significant step on a long journey aimed at decreasing the use of plastics. It provides an alternative to flexible food packages that presently use barrier films made of plastic or aluminium. The new product is made of paper-based material and it provides superior barrier properties against oxygen, water vapor, and flavour penetration. The product consists of wood-based fibres coated with a water-based barrier coating, and it is completely recyclable and biodegradable.
The new specialty paper product is based on a technology innovation from Jujo Thermal´s parent company, the Nippon Paper Industries. Nippon Paper Industries launched the SHIELDPLUS® technology and the first product applications in 2017. Jujo Thermal will be Nippon Paper Group´s European production base for SHIELDPLUS®. “The SHIELDPLUS® is a revolutionary technological material for the packaging industry. I am confident that it can be the solution for brand owners, who seek to develop biodegradable packaging materials. As our group slogan “Let paper do what it can do” states, we believe that paper, as a material, has a vast capability. The ecological challenges caused by a tremendous amount of plastic waste are serious. We are committed to addressing this challenge and the growing market need for ecological packaging material by developing sustainable materials. This new product is only the beginning,” says Senior R&D Manager & Packaging Specialist Masashi Okamoto of Jujo Thermal Ltd.
The new product marks an important milestone, not only because of its ecological nature, but also because it is a new product category for Jujo Thermal. “We have collaborated in the product development phase with the Paper Converting & Packaging Department of the University of Tampere. The collaboration has provided us with the possibility to develop and learn together. We have gained an in-depth understanding of the new product´s capabilities and we will utilize this know-how when training our personnel,” says Mika Anttila, R&D Director of Jujo Thermal Ltd.
The new product concept is currently in the market validation stage.
