Packing dairy and chilled foods means balancing two massive pressures: maintaining absolute hygiene and security, while meeting strict targets for plastic reduction. If a tamper seal fails, or a label peels off in the chiller, you are looking at rejected pallets and damaged brand reputation.
At SystemPak, we don’t deal in “eco-fluff.” We design and supply functional, high-tolerance packaging. Our Dairy and Eco Pak ranges are engineered specifically to handle the rigours of automated filling lines, survive the cold chain, and help you navigate UK sustainability compliance.
Sustainable Dairy Packaging : Engineered for the Chiller
When you are packing yoghurts, creams, or chilled desserts, the container has to perform under fluctuating temperatures and high-moisture conditions. We focus on two critical elements to ensure product integrity:
1. Tamper Evidence (TE) You Can Trust
Security in the dairy aisle is non-negotiable. Our dairy range features robust, engineered tamper-evident break tabs. Once the lid is snapped onto the tub on your production line, it stays locked until the end consumer removes the tab. This guarantees leak-proof transit and provides total assurance against contamination.
2. In-Mould Labelling (IML)
Standard stick-on labels are a liability in a wet, chilled environment—they wrinkle, peel, and degrade. We utilise In-Mould Labelling (IML), a process where the high-definition label is fused directly into the plastic during the injection moulding process.
- The Result: The label becomes an integral part of the tub. It cannot be scratched off or damaged by moisture, ensuring your branding looks premium from the depot all the way to the customer’s fridge.
The Eco Pak Standard: Cutting Carbon, Not Corners
“Eco-friendly” is a nice marketing term, but for UK packers, sustainability is about hard numbers – specifically, managing your liability under the UK Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT).
Switching to sustainable packaging shouldn’t mean settling for brittle plastics that crack when stacked. Our Eco Pak range applies advanced manufacturing to deliver high-performance, compliant containers through the “Three Rs”:
1. Integrating Post-Consumer Resin (PCR)
To help clients offset tax liabilities, our Eco Pak initiative incorporates 30% recycled content (PCR) where appropriate. We do this while ensuring the structural integrity of the container remains uncompromised, giving you a functional tub that meets current legislative thresholds.
2. True Recyclability with Mono-Materials
A tub is only truly recyclable if the UK’s waste management infrastructure can process it. Multi-layered plastics often end up in landfill because they cannot be separated. The Eco Pak range utilises mono-materials (such as 100% Polypropylene – PP). Because the tub, the lid, and the IML label are all made from the exact same polymer family, the entire unit can go straight into standard UK recycling streams without issue.
3. Lightweighting (Reduced Plastic Content)
Through precise injection moulding, we distribute the polymer more efficiently during manufacturing. This allows us to thin the walls of the container – reducing the overall volume of plastic used – without sacrificing the vertical crush strength required for palletisation.
Coming Soon: Thermoform Additions to the DairyPak Range
As part of our ongoing commitment to providing versatile, sustainable solutions for the food sector, SystemPak is expanding our established DairyPak range to include polypropylene (PP) thermoform containers.
Designed specifically for the demands of the dairy industry, these upcoming thermoformed additions offer excellent structural clarity alongside further opportunities for light weighting. Crucially, because they are manufactured from polypropylene, these new containers will align perfectly with mono-material recycling streams, providing another robust, easily recyclable option for high-volume packers. Keep an eye on our site for technical specifications and release dates.
Performance on the Line: Sustainable Dairy Packaging & Eco Pak Containers
A sustainable tub is useless if it jams your destacker or causes mis-feeds on your capping machinery.
SystemPak containers are manufactured to exact dimensional tolerances. Whether you are running a high-speed rotary filler or an inline indexing machine, our Eco Pak and Dairy tubs provide consistent nesting, reliable separation, and a clean, positive ‘snap’ when the lid is applied.
If you are looking to transition to PCR containers or need to upgrade to IML tamper-evident tubs, testing is essential. Contact the SystemPak technical team today to request a sample box and run a proper trial on your own filling lines.
