Nestlé-owned confectionery brand Quality Street is moving to recyclable, FSC-certified paper packaging for its twist-wrapped sweets.
The transition from dual foil and cellulose to recyclable paper wrappers will see Quality Street remove almost 2.5 billion individual pieces of packaging material from its supply chain globally.
The new packaging has been developed by experts at Nestlé's Confectionery Research and Development Center in York, UK, and the Swiss-based Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences.
The transition to paper involved the development of new materials, coating technologies, printing techniques and the adaptation of existing equipment.
'A Huge Undertaking'
Louise Barrett, head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York, said, "With nine different sweets to consider, the transition has been a huge undertaking. Each of our existing machines needs to be adapted to run paper and then rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we're still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street.
"Quality Street made history from the start, using the world's first twist-wrapping machine to revolutionise the way chocolates were manufactured and sold. Now we are making history again with the introduction of paper packaging for our famous sweets. We hope the fact that our famous sweets are now recyclable will make finding your own Quality Street favourites even more popular this year."
The Orange Crunch and Green Triangle flavours will remain in their existing foil wrappers as they are already recyclable.
The move to new paper packaging for the nine remaining twist-wrapped sweets will take a few months and until the end of year, consumers can expect to find both existing and new wrappers in their cartons, pouches, tubs and tins, Nestle added.
Quality Street
The confectionery brand, first launched in 1936, has been produced in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK.
The brand has implemented efforts to improve the sustainability of its operations and supply chain for over a decade and has achieved zero waste to landfill at the Halifax factory.
It switched to certified, sustainably sourced cocoa in 2015 and milk used in the chocolate is sourced from farms in Scotland that have been part of a sustainable farming partnership with Nestlé since 2003.
Following in the footsteps of Smarties, which introduced recyclable paper packaging for all its confectionery products globally in 2021, Quality Street is the second Nestlé confectionery brand to make the move to paper, contributing to Nestlé's commitment to reach 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest packaging news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
