PP | rPET & APET | OPS | |
Fresh meat | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Ready-to-eat foodstuffs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Chilled foods | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deep freezing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Microwave suitable | Yes | No | No |
Oven suitable | No | No | No |
PP- is a very universal material. It’s used for the most part for packaging fresh meat and ready-to-eat foodstuffs being ideally suited for warming food in microwave ovens. Depending on the material type and thickness the temperature for use ranges from -20°C to +121°C.
Two types of PP are produced – one is based on pure PP granules (most transparent products) and in the other case the composition replaces some of the granules with environmentally friendly minerals (e.g. talk or chalk) meaning that less energy is required to produce such packaging and helps conserve resources produced based on crude oil.
rPET– usually used in the food sector where the presentation of food through extra clear packaging plays an important role and is the main sales argument. Fresh colourful salads, drinks, pastries and snacks are all ideally packaged in PET.
PET has superb barrier properties which gives your product a long shelf-life when sealed. PET plastic is often used as the base packaging for sliced products. PET and PET/PE plastics are described in the product section. PET can be used in the temperature range of -40°C to +70°C
OPS – products of this material are foremost suited for confectionery and bakery products – products with a short shelf-life. The material is also often used for packaging loose pre-fabricates and culinary products to take away. OPS is a very clear material and therefore boxes made from it are ideally suited in situations in which one wishes to show one’s products to the maximum extent from all possible sides. The OPS material is relatively brittle and cannot be welded or used in microwave ovens. The material is suited for use in the temperature range of 0 to +80 C°. It’s also often used for deep-freezing, but then the fact that the product can easily break must be considered.