Sustainability trends in pasta packaging

by Mia Marchini Scientific coordinator of Professional Pasta

With the adoption of the European Strategy for Plastics in a circular economy in 2018, the Commission lays the foundations to a new economy, where the design and production of plastics and plastic products take place in a sustainable way, meeting reduction, repair, reuse and recycling needs, concepts at the heart of the waste hierarchy, the circular economy and the beating heart of the European Green Deal, which will contribute to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The packaging of food products, including pasta, plays a fundamental role, as it protects the product, ensures its preservation over time, makes it possible for it to be consumed at a later date than the date of production and has an essential communication function. Today, packaging must meet new needs that are related to environmental, social and economic sustainability. For food companies, using sustainable packaging means redesigning the whole supply chain to reduce its environmental impact. From this perspective, the key innovation appears to be the use of biodegradable, recyclable and renewable materials, primarily paper and cardboard.

Just few weeks ago the “blue box,” the new packaging of Barilla’s classic pasta shapes, won the Best Packaging Award 2023. No more transparent plastic window, 100% recyclable packaging produced with cardboard from responsibly managed forests, showing Barilla’s commitment to sustainability and the development of solutions aimed at reducing its impact on the planet. However, there are several successful “case histories” on the market and packaging reengineering paths undertaken in recent years by Italian food companies, including pasta producers. Generally speaking, the guiding principle to be inspired by is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:” reduce waste, use recycled materials or design the packaging so that it can be recycled.

Let us retrace some of these “case histories” together. Since 2021, La Molisana has been using a type of material for the pack that can be disposed of with paper and comes from paper mills participating in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) programme. In order to protect the pack and the product, a very thin plastic film is inserted in the inner layer that respects the parameters for paper disposal and is mechanically decoupled once more during recycling.

Also Rummo pasta factory in Benevento has replaced its old packs with new ones that can be disposed of with paper since 2021. Felicia, a brand of Andriani Benefit Corporation, presented to the market for the first time back in 2021 its new clear, simple and truly distinctive image with an innovative totally recyclable packaging, designed by 6.14

Creative Licensing, which is now on the shelves of large retailers. In early 2022, Pastificio Felicetti introduced a new sustainable packaging, made of 100% pure natural cellulose paper certified PEFC (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) and sourced from responsibly managed forests. This packaging was designed to guarantee high performance in terms of resistance to product weight and packaging lines, with water-based heat sealing. Felicetti also commissioned research from the University of Trento to investigate the extent to which paper packaging is more sustainable than plastic. After a LCA analysis of the two solutions, researchers certified that paper packaging significantly reduces the environmental impact for the two key indicator categories: -30% global warming, -57% consumption of non-renewable sources. Pasta Armando, the premium brand of the De Matteis pasta factory, fully respects the environment and protects the values of sobriety, simplicity and avoidance of waste that characterise it; since 2022 this brand has transformed its packaging thanks to a totally recyclable FSC certified material. In the name of sustainability also the new Sgambaro packaging is made of FSC-certified 100% virgin cellulose fibre paper. This packaging won the ADI Packaging Design Award 2022, awarded by the Association for Industrial Design “for innovation, clarity of information and the use of fully recyclable eco-friendly materials.” An entirely compostable packaging, the result of teamwork lasting for almost three years, is the one created by Novamont, Gualapack, Ilip and Gruppo Poligrafico Tiberino Novara for Pastificio Fontaneto. An innovation aimed at removing plastic trays and replacing them with containers that can be recycled together with wet waste. This project implied replacing the traditional multilayer plastic packaging with a fully Ok Compost-certified (Tüv Austria) multi-part compostable pack : a 100% biodegradable and compostable Novamont bioplastic tray produced by Ilip with a multilayer film containing MaterBi produced by Gualapack and a compostable label produced by Gruppo Poligrafico Tiberino.

In 2021 Entroterra, a company from the Marche region - La Pasta di Camerino brand, launched a new line of fresh filled and long pasta contained in a 100% recyclable and sustainable pack: the tray is completely made of paper. Liguori, the IGP Gragnano biodynamic pasta, uses 100% recyclable Aticelca 501 certified paper packaging. And finally, Pastificio Garofalo has recently presented its new packaging made of 30% recycled plastic, obtained from the chemical recycling of plastic packaging waste. Pastificio Garofalo is the first in the pasta sector to use recycled plastic obtained from chemical recycling, a process that allows pyrolysis oil to be obtained from the decomposition of the polymers that make up traditional plastic packaging waste, turning them into the raw material that can be used to produce new plastic, just like virgin materials. This process is different from the mechanical process used so far and offers unprecedented recycling possibilities for waste fractions that are currently difficult to recycle, such as household plastics. In order to facilitate the ecological transition, fight against pollution and waste disposal, pasta manufacturers are also converging towards increasingly innovative and environmentally sustainable packaging solutions.

Mia Marchini

Meatless Farm has launched a selection of new products in the UK, including what it claims are the country’s first branded plant-based meat-filled pastas. Two varieties of pasta are available - Beef, Red Wine & Porcini Mushroom Girasole and No-Duja Ravioli. Both are high-protein, low in sugar, and can be prepared in 4-5 minutes. The Beef, Red Wine and Porcini Mushroom Girasole are described as “perfect for date night’ by the brand, which adds that the huge vegan pasta parcels are ‘bursting with flavor, without compromising the planet.” Its No-Duja Ravioli offer a quick fix for pasta cravings, says the brand, which adds that the “smoky and spicy ‘No-Duja’… pairs perfectly with the delicate plant-based pasta.”

Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso called on Thursday for a crisis meeting over prices for pasta, after they jumped by more than double the national inflation rate. Urso’s ministry said the cost of spaghetti and other pasta products rose year-on-year by 17.5% in March despite a drop in wheat prices. In that month, Italian EUharmonized consumer prices (HICP) rose overall by 8.1%. The crisis talks will be chaired by a government-appointed watchdog on inflation on May 11, and will mark the first meeting of a new committee set up to monitor unusual price movements, the ministry said. Competent authorities and trade and consumer associations will take part in it, it added. Italian inflation rose by even more in April to 8.8% year-on-year, driven by a fresh spike in energy prices, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday. “Core” inflation, net of fresh food and energy, was stable at 6.8% year-on-year.

Tesco has announced another round of price cuts on its ownbrand pasta and cooking oil as it sees deflation making its way through to cupboard essentials. The supermarket recently confirmed that its own brand pasta has been reduced by 15p both in stores and online, while vegetable and sunflower oil are now also up to 15p cheaper. It comes after Tesco previously announced price drops for customers on essentials such as milk, bread and butter within recent weeks. Newly reduced items include dinnertime favorites like penne, fusilli, macaroni and spaghetti, with 28 of Tesco’s 500g own-brand dried pastas in total having been reduced from 95p to 80p. One liter of vegetable oil now costs £ 1.85 down from £ 1.99, while sunflower oil has been cut from £ 2.40 to £ 2.25.

UFC-Que Choisir faces pasta giant Panzani. The French consumer association announced on Friday 12 May that it had filed a complaint against Panzani for “deceptive commercial practices.” After analysing Panzani packages sold in French shops and the French association believes that the group markets fresh pasta, when in fact it is dry pasta with a higher price tag. In fact, when one reads carefully what is written on the packaging, a sentence in smaller font reads: “Dry pasta as good as a fresh pasta.” Underneath it says: “kneaded and shaped like fresh pasta.” With this technique, UFC-Que Choisir believes that Panzani intentionally suggests to his customers that it is fresh pasta, when in fact it is dry pasta. “Panzani tries to influence consumers’ behaviour in order to get them to buy dry pasta [...] at a higher price,” UFC-Que Choisir’s lawyers explain.

You write “Icons of Eataly” and you read celebration of pasta, the “queen” of Italy’s top food products. Eataly is launching a new sixmonth project, from 12 May to the end of November 2023, to bring a taste of some authentic recipes to the United States and celebrate Italy, which is increasingly becoming a destination for culinary travels, as well as for its natural beauty and history. This initiative will present a programme with special dishes, lessons provided by starred chefs as well as events dedicated to that humble combination of flour and water that has become one of Italy’s greatest culinary successes. Each month, Eataly will release a limited-time pasta dish aimed at telling the broad history of pasta from northern to southern Italy.

Paolo Internicola, an entrepreneur from Palermo who has lived in the US for many years, is making a name for the made-in-Italy food industry in the United States thanks to an innovative product that combines easy preparation, top-quality ingredients, and Italianmade technology. The idea behind Pasta Noodles is simple: offer some real “al dente” Italian pasta (firm to the bite), ready in minutes, without compromising taste or quality. Internicola has worked to create a product that meets both the Italian culinary tradition and the needs of demanding consumers. The result is a product that is already winning the hearts of pasta lovers across the United States.

As it is well known, more than 20 kilos of pasta are consumed in Italy every year: a number that is not surprising, since it is an iconic Made-in-Italy food. Moreover, even those who are not geniuses in the kitchen are able to prepare at least a spaghetti dish. At the same time, something rather unpleasant can happen when cooking pasta. In fact, it may have happened to many that pasta gets stuck to the bottom of the pot during cooking. However, there is no need to worry because there is a trick that will help solve this small problem. What you need to do is to add a little bit of oil as soon as the water boils and before throwing pasta into the pot. In fact, the oil will create a sort of film on the water surface that will not allow the various pieces of pasta to stick together.

It is called Italian Mothertongue - Learn, Speak, RepEAT, and it is the new digital project that Garofalo has launched for an international audience. The aim of this project is to make the different shapes of Pasta Garofalo known outside Italy, starting from the correct pronunciation of the brand. To do this, Garofalo has chosen to produce a stream of Instagram reels with which a couple of meta humans, alternating in video with “sing-along” audio, will convey the names of Pasta Garofalo’s iconic pasta shapes such as spaghetti, farfalle, fusilli, mafalda corta, casarecce, elicoidali and tagliatelle in a clear and simple way. The Italian Mothertongue project uses the special virtual assistant technology, and the reels will be available on Instagram pages in the countries where Pasta Garofalo can be found.