Why are we dependant on plastic?
Imagine a world without plastic. It’s pretty difficult to picture, right? So why the dependence?
The success and dominance of plastics started in the early 20th century and has allowed improvements in the food industry over this time. Plastic food packaging plays an important role, from protecting food from damage in transit to maintaining quality and extending shelf life – both are important for preventing food waste!
We’re proud to help our customers reduce their food waste, by sending pre-portioned ingredients, as it is one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
Until viable alternatives are found, we cannot ditch plastic from the food industry. Nearly all major UK supermarkets are striving for sustainability, having signed the UK Plastic Pact and it is this kind of movement that will help us move one step closer to a solution.
The problem
The problem with plastic that’s causing environmental and ecological harm, is its inability to breakdown, often taking thousands of years, as well as the accumulation of microplastics in the food chain. But it’s not all doom and gloom, there are already many easy, quick changes we can make to reduce unnecessary plastic waste.
We’re making progress
At Mindful Chef we are no different, we care about our impact on the environment and are on a mission to remove single-use plastic from our healthy recipe boxes as soon as possible! In 2018 we made various changes, from moving mushrooms into compostable punnets and cherry tomatoes into cardboard boxes. Each change is carefully considered to make sure our ingredients remain the best quality on their journey to you and that their shelf life is not impacted.
Many tests are going on behind the scenes at Mindful Chef and we are really excited to share our latest update. We’ve been working closely with one of our excellent fish suppliers JCS on new sustainable salmon packaging!
Our new salmon packaging
Our fresh salmon fillets now come in packaging which is 96% recyclable! The plastic tray is made from HDPE, one of the safest forms of plastic that is simple and cost-effective to recycle, and accepted by the majority of local and domestic recycling schemes. We have been working closely with our salmon supplier JCS, who are leading the way with their environmental commitment.
We’re still working on the other 4%, which is the plastic film. At the moment, there is no food-safe alternative to this film available in the UK market. But we’re hopeful that the clever people working in packaging technology will soon come up with a new kind of film, at which point we will be able to adopt this and make this pack 100% recyclable and compostable.
We hope to role this out with more of our suppliers, so we can lessen of footprint on the planet even more. In the meantime, learn more about our packaging from recycling to returning here.