[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The food industry, accelerating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management, is continuously introducing eco-friendly products.
On the 16th, according to the food industry, Lotte Chilsung Beverage launched a 350mL version of ‘Trevi ECO,’ a label-free product of its carbonated water brand ‘Trevi.’ Following the first label-free bottled water ‘Icis 8.0 ECO’ and label-free Chilsung Cider ‘Chilsung Cider ECO,’ this product was introduced in response to the growing number of consumers seeking eco-friendly products.
Earlier, Lotte Chilsung Beverage released the coffee brand 'Cantata,' which eliminates labels on the can body and directly prints the design to enhance recyclability. As a label-free product that requires no label removal, it reduces the hassle of peeling off labels and the amount of label usage while improving the convenience of separate disposal and the efficiency of can recycling, making it an eco-friendly product.
Lotte Foods introduced eco-friendly packaging materials for ice cream and home meal replacement (HMR) products.
'Ppapico' is the first in the ice cream industry to adopt green-certified packaging. The nationally certified green certification system is based on the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth, certifying and supporting promising green technologies or businesses. Ppapico uses film packaging materials that apply green technology verified by the government and also applies the green certification mark on the product. By using eco-friendly ink in the packaging, it plans to reduce the use of harmful organic solvents, which are environmental pollutants, by about 39 tons annually.
For frozen HMR packaging, film made from recycled PET material (r-PET) is applied for the first time in the food industry. This is a proactive response to the Ministry of Environment’s policy to expand the use of recycled raw materials to 30% by 2030. Through collaboration with Lotte Central Research Institute, Lotte Aluminum, and Kolon Industries, r-PET was applied at 80% to the outermost surface printing film of the packaging.
SPC Group’s packaging production affiliate SPC Pack signed a ‘Low-Carbon Eco-Friendly Packaging Business Partnership Agreement’ with Lotte Chemical. Through this agreement, ‘Lotte Chemical,’ the largest bio-PET producer in Korea, and ‘SPC Pack,’ which has produced various food packaging materials used by Paris Baguette, Baskin Robbins, SPC Samlip, and others, will jointly develop eco-friendly packaging by leveraging their respective strengths and expertise.
The bio-PET packaging container developed through this agreement uses sugarcane as raw material and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 28% compared to conventional petroleum-based PET during manufacturing, transportation, and incineration processes, while being 100% recyclable.
Consumer response to eco-friendly products is also enthusiastic. CU’s label-free transparent private brand bottled water, launched for the first time in February to support eco-friendly consumption, saw sales surge by 78.2% compared to the previous year within about a month after its release. Compared to the 20.4% increase in total bottled water sales during the same period, this represents a growth rate approximately 3.8 times higher. This reflects the impact of growing environmental awareness, which has changed consumers’ criteria for selecting products.
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