Clear winner: Organic Sea Harvest pioneers fully compostable packaging

Called CF422, the packaging will be sourced from Invergordon-based Celnor Eco Packaging Ltd (formerly Gaia BioMaterials UK Ltd), a company offering plastic-free, compostable biomaterial packaging.

The material is made from vegetable oils and esters purpose-grown and sourced in the European Union, and calcium carbonate, which adds minerals to the soil when the material is composted.

OSH said the material contains less than half the amount of CO₂ in normal packaging, reduces the need for energy at the packing stage and eliminates the issue of microplastics, while still ensuring food safety and shelf life.

Packaging must change

The company’s chief executive Ove Thu said: “As people all over the globe work together to overcome climate change, it is important for us that we take every opportunity to safeguard the planet.

“Today’s packaging and transportation of food must change to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. As an ever-changing company, we have been invested in finding a better way to package our frozen salmon portions. We can now announce we have found a solution, which will be made available to retailers and their customers.

A not insignificant step

“We have worked with Celnor before and the CF422 packaging we’ll use is not used anywhere else in the industry. We are delighted to be able to offer our customers and retailers a flavoursome, organic product in environmentally-friendly packaging.

“This is a small, yet not insignificant step, towards securing Net Zero – a goal we all have a responsibility to work towards. We are delighted to have set the wheels in motion to offer our customers delicious organic salmon in fully-compostable packaging.”

The packaging is similar but not identical to one supplied by Celnor to EWOS Cargill, which uses it for the 25kg bags of feed it delivers to low volume, high-end salmon farmer Wester Ross Salmon.