The Annual Flexible Packaging Achievement Awards, organised by the Flexible Packaging Association, the US association of manufacturers of flexible packaging and material and equipment suppliers, is considered to be one of the most coveted awards in the industry.

Uflex’s Waterless Internet Flower Packaging won the awards in four categories – gold medal in extending the use of flexible packaging; gold medal in technical innovation; silver medal in sustainability and silver medal in packaging excellence.

This year, 75 distinct packaging entries were in the fray, with a total of 152 entries cumulatively (some packages were entered into multiple categories). Total 19 packages were honored with 29 achievement awards.

The waterless internet flower packaging works on the principle of active modified atmospheric packaging (AMAP) through Flexfresh, a special patented polymeric film offering shelf-life extension solution for fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. Uflex introduced this specialised packaging solution in India and the overseas earlier last year, which has been getting good response from the market.

Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director, Uflex, said, “Flexfresh impeccably upholds the ethos of flexible packaging through myriad sustainable advantages that it offers towards shelf life extension for fresh produce from a few days to several weeks. We have already tried and tested the efficacy of this packaging solution for fresh produce ranging from iceberg lettuce to broccoli to bell peppers, rambutan, mangos to blueberries and now to Flowers. Trials for several other categories are underway.”

Today, almost one-third of the food (approximately 1.3 billion tonnes) produced for human consumption is wasted every year. A major portion of this wastage occurs due to flawed packaging, Chaturvedi said, adding, “I am glad that the engineers at Uflex were able to perceive this need-gap and plugged it by developing Flexfresh.”