The international packaging design competition for students was looking for innovative designs to improve the eco-efficiency of food packaging. This year’s entries demonstrated that more sustainable types of packaging can be created for a variety of foodstuffs, from meat products to sauces, liquids and ready meals.
The first prize of €3,000 was awarded to Hanna Päivinen from the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland for her folded, two-compartment paper-board tray. The lid of the tray is also made from board and its perforation separates the package into two triangular sections, which enables the contents to be used one at a time.
“The waste of food, which puts a burden on the environment, is reduced, since half of the contents can be used first and the other half is preserved in the tight package,” said the Food Packaging Design Awards jury in its report. “This tray is suitable for packaging of a variety of different foodstuffs, such as ready meals and cold cuts. It’s perfect for smaller households and is a magnificent, new breakthrough for paper-board, with plenty of market potential.”
Marika Luoto and Thomas Åkerfelt took the second-place prize of €1,500. According to the jury, their round carton has considerable market potential for such applications as ready sauces or autoclave packaging.
The distinct aesthetic shape of the package gives the product a high-quality, luxurious image. The package, which can be made from Stora Enso Natura liquid packaging board, is easy to flatten and suitable for recycling.
The third prize of €1,000 was awarded to Saana Hellsten and Elina Ahonen for their take-away or ready meal packaging with a more advanced closing and opening mechanism than those currently used in products in the market. The prize winners are students of the Lahti Institute of Design.
In addition, the Jury granted an honourable mention to Juho-Pekka Virtanen and Matti Pärssinen of the University of Art and Design Helsinki.
The common feature of the prize-winning packages was their successful use of paper-board to replace plastic, glass or aluminium packages, thereby offering new types of food packaging with a reduced environmental impact and, in particular, a smaller carbon footprint.
“The competition entries showed great versatility and an exceptionally high level of quality,” said Tapio Vapaasalo, Jury Chairman and Professor at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. “The award-winning entries were particularly successful in combining the theme of the competition with the requirements of production, the specific characteristics of the material, and the universal applicability of the solutions. The best entries are the result of strategic planning, generating major volume benefits and supporting the creation of brand value.”
The purpose of the Food Packaging Design Awards competition is to discover new paper-board-based solutions for food packaging, and to encourage design students to utilise paper-board, which creates long-term benefits in terms of ecology, production and distribution, thus providing some answers to future challenges.
“Making packages more sustainable by using renewable and recyclable raw materials is a field in which we can successfully work together with designers, the packaging industry and brand owners to curb the climate change,” said Päivi Harju-Eloranta, Director, Environmental Affairs, Stora Enso Consumer Board.
Among competition entries from several countries and schools, the strong performance of one particular school shows that a long-term study programme that embraces intuitiveness and allows room for the students’ personalities yields passionate results.
“This sets an attractive challenge for other schools, most of which don’t necessarily give such a high priority to packaging design in their curricula,” Tapio Vapaasalo concluded.
Stora Enso is proud to be a category sponsor for the 2009 beverage innovation awards at Drinktec.
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