Packaging is essential for safely storing and transporting food. Creating and manufacturing fit-for-purpose packaging requires sophisticated innovation and engineering to ensure food stays fresh, quality is maintained, food waste is minimised and packaging remains operationally efficient.
Strong partnerships with our packaging suppliers enable close collaboration, ensuring that any new solutions introduced deliver long-term sustainability benefits.
We are members of REPAK in Ireland and signatories to WRAP’s UK Plastics Pact 2035, working to achieve collective industry targets and drive improvement across the packaging system.
As packaging legislation continues to evolve, we are also preparing for the requirements of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which will introduce increasing requirements for packaging, design and waste reduction from 2026, and enhanced recyclability requirements from 2030.
Achieve the UK Plastics Pact Targets by 2035
Designed to respond to these changes and support our long-term sustainability ambitions, our packaging plan focuses on 5 key ambitions:
Collaborative Approach
We are committed to collaboration to find solutions which will protect the future of meat packaging.
Flexibles for the Future
Together with industry we must determine when new materials may be comparable to current barriers and properties.
Optimisation
Optimise materials, processes and machinery, reduce material where possible and share latest knowledge across our business.
Innovation
Solving longer term product and process challenges such as 100% recyclable flexible packaging.
Data Analysis
Ensuring our IT infrastructure is ready for new regulations and set up to manage data capture and processing.
PET from plastic bottles is the primary source of recycled material used in our trays, with all rigid trays containing a minimum of 50% recycled content and some formats achieving recycled content of up to 100%.
Our strategy is to optimise plastic where possible and reduce overall packaging and plastic usage through a range of value engineering projects. A fully clear recyclable tray is a key step toward achieving a circular economy for plastics.
In some cases, we introduced fibre-based tray options to meet customer requirements and enable plastic reduction, while continuing to assess their overall sustainability and operational performance. Through collaboration with our suppliers, we have removed approximately 3,000 tonnes of plastic from our supply chain and developed right-size tray solutions to eliminate unnecessary material.
We support measures to promote tray-to-tray recycling schemes and are engaging with suppliers to better understand the market and the availability of recycled content. Since 2023 we have transitioned some products into vac pack solutions, a lighter packaging format that delivers plastic reduction and improved shelf life.
Flexible materials such as shrink bags and films are laminate structures made of multiple plastic types, with valuable characteristics including puncture resistance, barrier properties and excellent sealing ability. The recyclability of complex flexibles remains a key challenge for the industry, alongside sourcing recycled content for flexible materials such as MAP lidding films, VSP skin films, vac pack pouches and shrink bags. PPWR is changing the landscape in packaging and how packaging is designed. We will work towards the criteria assessing performance in new materials.
Since 2021, all soft flexible packaging in Ireland has been accepted into domestic recycling for energy recovery, providing an interim solution to avoid landfill while we continue to focus on making packaging materials more circular. In 2022, we introduced a lidding film for MAP applications with 30% recycled content, delivering a 12% reduction in virgin plastic, and this has since been rolled out wherever possible across our retail packaging sites.
We are members of On Pack Recycling Label, working towards solutions that can deliver on existing and new guidelines. They work alongside UK local authorities , brands and producers. Their team provides expert support and tools to help businesses navigate the complexities of recyclability of packaging. Solutions are being explored which will increase the proportion of packaging which can be deemed as OPRL Recycle. This will be aligned with the infrastructure and roadmap for Flexible packaging.