POT Noodle is to trial switching its pot to a new paper version created after three years of development work.
The new pot will roll out exclusively in Tesco, with a trial of 500,000 pots of the brand’s most popular flavour, chicken and mushroom.
Unilever’s packaging and manufacturing teams have been developing and refining the new paper pot for over three years, ‘significantly’ reducing plastic usage in each pot, whilst ensuring the packaging still holds its distinctive shape and delivers the same eating experience.
The firm said the new pots can be recycled at home with other cardboard and paper packaging and include OPRL’s recycling labels to provide clear guidance to shoppers on how to dispose of their Pot Noodle packaging.
A single layer of ultra-thin plastic film is used to provide barrier protection, which Unilever explained ensures ingredients remain fresh and protects the paper when water is added but doesn’t inhibit the recyclability of the pot.
Unilever added that innovating with alternative materials, such as paper, is a ‘key’ part of its sustainable packaging strategy and will play an ‘important’ role in delivering its commitment to halve its use of virgin plastic, alongside increasing use of recycled plastic, moving to ultra-concentrated formulas which use smaller bottles, and looking at other packaging innovations such as refillable bottles.
If the trial is successful, Unilever said that the ambition is to move the full Pot Noodle range to paper pots, a move which once complete could remove 4,000 tonnes of virgin plastic each year.
Shopper feedback and insights from the trial will be used to support the subsequent scale-up of the innovation at the Pot Noodle factory, where Unilever has introduced new capabilities to switch from plastic to paper-based production for the trial.
Andre Burger, general manager foods (nutrition) at Unilever UK & Ireland, said, “Pot Noodle has been a loved British brand for over 40 years, and whilst our great taste will never change, we’re always challenging ourselves to make our products and packaging better.
“From material development and testing through to new manufacturing processes and capabilities, big packaging innovations require the investment of time and expertise across many teams and partners. There have been plenty of challenges along the way, but we are committed to reducing the plastic in our packaging and to a paper-based future for our pots, without compromising on the Pot Noodle experience our shoppers know and love. We are now excited to learn from this initial trial with the ambition of bringing our paper pots to more shoppers across the UK soon.”
Courtney Pallett, packaging campaigns manager at Tesco, added, “Removing or reducing plastic wherever we can remains a key focus for us, so we’re excited to work with Unilever to exclusively trial Pot Noodle’s new sustainably sourced, FSC certified paper packaging and to continue to work together to help protect our planet.”
