The "Sweet Week" comprising of ProSweets Cologne and ISM, which brings the sweets and snacks producers together with the suppliers, is taking place from 2 to 5 February 2025. ProSweets Cologne is the top address for all sweets and snacks producers, who want to organise their packaging processes more environmentally-friendly, more economically and thus more contemporarily. Around 250 exhibitors will inform the visitors on-site at the Cologne fair grounds about their product line-ups in this section, including PAPACKS Sales GmbH from Germany, Kreatif Kutu San ve Tic A.S. from Turkey or WRH Industries LLC from the USA. Here the focus also lies on the role of sustainable and recyclable packaging to combat food waste. From hard caramels, jelly babies, chocolate and liquorice, through to pretzels, gluten-free, vegan and fat-reduced snacks - today's sweets and snacks market is as diversified as the trends that drive it. Even beyond the most important seasonal occasions like carnival, Easter, Halloween or Christmas, the brightly packed products entice the customers to buy.
A glance at the shelves in the supermarket shows: Brand names and the trade are increasingly opting for sustainable packaging, whether in the form of recyclable materials or by dispensing with plastic.
Mono-materials: Recyclable but demanding The latest innovations include cardboard packaging that completely does without glue as well as cardboard monofilm hybrid solutions, which allow the use of plastic to be reduced considerably. This is accompanied by intelligent packaging design, which leads to a smaller volume. This enables more and also lighter packaging to be stacked, stored and transported, which reduces the energy requirement for transportation and cooling. With regards to sustainability, above all laminates are problematic, because they are heavy or not at all separable and can thus not be reused. As an alternative, PP and PE-based mono-materials or paper-based packaging materials are popular - a trend that is reflected at ProSweets Cologne. They are said to display better recyclability. For example, they are suitable for the production of stand-up pouches with or without a reclosure system for sweet and savoury snacks. However, during the packaging process they are more challenging than conventional film structures. They tear more easily, are more difficult to seal or the folding properties are not as good. Hence, technological adaptations are required that allow the sweets producers to adjust their machines per plug-and-play thanks to existing retrofit options. This allows them to switch between conventional and recyclable films easily and thus position themselves optimally on the market.
