What is Cereal Packaged In?

Cereals are usually packaged in recycled cardboard boxes, but this trend is changing as there have been reports of cereal contamination in these boxes. Some high profile companies in the United Kingdom have already dumped recycled cardboard boxes to package cereals. Others are also following the suit as outrage over cereal packaging in recycled cardboard boxes grows.

Problem with current cereal packaging

Two years ago, a group of researchers in Switzerland analyzed more than one thousand cereal products from stores across Germany. The cereals were packaged in recycled cardboard boxes. The team of researchers found that the use of these boxes was damaging the food by contaminating it and shortening its shelf-life. They discovered that the longer a product stayed inside such packaging, the more contaminated it became. The research showed that the contamination from ink and material oils reached the food despite the presence of safety plastic layers. Some big companies in the field of cereal packaging announced either abandoning the use of recycled cardboard boxes as packaging material, or making other changes when the report's results were announced in 2011.

Although it is possible to use new cardboard every time a box of cereal is made, this process is more costly, and certainly not environment friendly. Since cardboard is made from trees, it would result in a higher rate of deforestation.

Future and stand up bags

With 2011 study clearly demonstrating the shortcomings of cereal packaging in recycled cardboard boxes, the hunt for a new kind of packaging material was on. This is how packaging industry landed on standup pouches.

StandUpPouches.net's stand up pouches are safe. These bags are made from FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved food materials. This material is completely contaminant-free. In other words, the risk of your food getting contaminated inside these pouches is practically zero.

Talking in terms of eco friendliness, stand up pouches are not resource hungry. More of these pouches can be manufactured from a certain amount of resources than cereal boxes. Therefore their production does not damage the environment as much as the production of new cereal boxes.

Also, these pouches are landfill friendly. It means more of these pouches can fit inside a landfill than boxes. As a consequence, fewer landfills are needed to hold discarded packets.

Add to these qualities a large area for advertising and product information, and lesser costs; and it becomes clear that stand up pouches offer a great option for cereal packaging of the future.