Boards that European company Stora Enso manufactures and which are good for ovens are now being used for packing bakery products. The Swedish company Pagen AB has launched a bun pack that utilises Stora Enso's "ovenable" board.

Says Petra Cranston-Niukkanen, product manager at Stora Enso Packaging Boards: "The demand for semi-cooked products has been on the rise in Europe, in spite of the fact that the conventional packaging materials used in the sector have lagged behind in development. Ovenable board offers new properties for packagers, for example in printing. It also gives consumers the freedom to choose how they want to heat bakery products."

The product's promoters say aluminium and greaseproof paper, the materials most commonly used in packing bakery products, do not give a printing surface that is suitable for four-colour printing. It also makes it difficult to print the brand name on the side of muffin cases. Ovenboard, they say, opens up possibilities for good print quality. They go on to say that while aluminium packages are unsuitable for microwave ovens, the Ensoven PET board, produced by Stora Enso, can be used in both ordinary and microwave ovens. The board retains its shape and can be recycled. The trays, on which Pagen's buns are packed, are produced by CC Pack, which is part of the A&R Carton Group. The semi-cooked buns, after being heated for a short while, are packed in the Ensoven PET board. Stora Enso's core product areas are packaging boards, magazine papers, newsprint and fine papers. The company has an annual paper and board production capacity of 15.3-million tones.

Meanwhile, many consumer groups are attracted by multi-compartment ovenable packages, increased use of colours and different shapes and digital printing. New packaging solutions have been developed that enable ready-cooked and frozen products to be considerably expanded.

They have been developed under joint work by Huhtamaki Van Leer, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of consumer and industrial packages, and Stora Enso.

Upgrading of ready-cooked foods and launching of new products require intense investment in development by the entire packaging industry. Conventional ovenable trays will be joined by new types of packaging solutions.