Fernandipac: “Baking paper can replace plastic in food packaging”
This question asked by Carl-Henrik Fernandi is all about how plastic and aluminium in food packaging can be replaced by other materials.
– Nordic Paper was recommended to me by chance – and it turned out to be just the thing, he says.
Good barrier properties in a material free from harmful substances were what Carl-Henrik Fernandi, founder of Fernandipac, was looking for in his quest to reduce the amount of plastic in food packaging.
– My main driver was to eliminate plastic migration into food and reduce the amount of plastic and microplastics ending up in nature,” explains Fernandi.
The solution was baking paper.
“The paper stayed completely intact”
At first he had trouble finding the right one, having read about many suppliers that added highly fluorinated compounds in their manufacturing processes. When he then got in contact with Nordic Paper, where the paper gets its barrier properties through a unique grinding process – not by adding PFAS chemicals – he found what he was looking for.
– We could simply utilise the paper’s inherent properties to create a good oxygen barrier, moisture barrier and grease barrier.
Fernandipac conducted empirical experiments using Nordic Paper’s baking paper and tested the paper against a variety of foods over a six-month period.
– The paper stayed completely intact. Nothing happened, he says.
Carl-Henrik Fernandi is an optimist who hopes and believes that Fernandipac will soon be out on the market.
– After the patent application I showed Fernandipac to a bio-innovation manager at a major food company, who described it as both revolutionary and too good to be true. As soon as we had commercialised the product he wanted to have some, Fernandi says, adding:
– I think we’ll see Fernandipac out in the stores as early as 2027.