Scottish fruit growers Angus Soft Fruits have introduced a revolutionary recyclable punnet to house their great-tasting Good Natured Fruit (GNF) range of strawberries and raspberries that are grown without the use of pesticides and so are residue free. The new recyclable punnet was developed by Adare, a leading marketing and customer communications company with a well respected expertise in applying technical innovation to consumer packaging.

ASF set Adare the task of creating new packaging that was as innovative, pioneering and in the same environmentally conscious vein as the GNF fruit itself.

During the process of creating an environmental solution for packaging soft fruit a few difficulties were unearthed, namely to create a punnet that was safe for direct food contact and enabled the fruit to survive for the fullness of its shelflife, and the issue that a see-through lid was required to enable the consumer to view the fruit within the punnet without using traditional plastics.

Adare, in conjunction with Angus Soft Fruits overcame these difficulties to produce one of the first recyclable soft fruit punnets available in the UK today. The new GNF packaging is a great alternative to the plastic lidded punnet that housed Good Natured Fruit previously as most local authorities send plastic punnets to landfill, and conventional plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade.

The resultant recyclable GNF punnet is made from wholly sustainable components. The punnet itself is made from UK sourced cardboard mill off-cuts. To enable customers to view the fruit, Adare developed a printed recycled board sleeve featuring a clear film window. Although the window looks like clear plastic film it is manufactured from woodpulp from ethically sourced forests. As well as being recoverable through the cardboard recycling waste stream this film is also biodegradable and compostable.

Even the inks and varnish are vegetable based, helping reduce the environmental impact of the total pack. The entire pack can be recycled through the cardboard recycling waste stream, which the majority of consumers have access to.

Robert Whiteside, chief executive officer at Adare, comments: "Innovation is foremost in the development of environmentally-friendly packaging and we continue to work closely with all our clients to assess how we can minimise the impact on the environment whilst importantly maintaining the aesthetic aspects of their goods. With the punnet we have created for Angus Soft Fruits we have a clear success story in achieving that."

Lochy Porter, Managing Director of Angus Soft Fruits comments: "We initially set ourselves the task of finding a way to grow soft fruit that would eliminate the use of pesticides. Once we had achieved these goals we looked towards the packaging of our Good Natured Fruit. We are delighted that Adare have met our design brief and successfully developed a punnet that enables us to offer recyclable packaging in this sector for the first time."

Good Natured Fruit strawberries and raspberries in recyclable punnets are now available in all major Sainsbury's and ASDA stores and selected Co-Op stores nationwide.