FrieslandCampina celebrates 150th anniversary and Nutroma's first rPET bottle

The Aalter site of FrieslandCampina was allowed to officially open the 31st Voka Open Company Day on Sunday, October 3. A festive event in a jubilee year in which the dairy player is celebrating its 150th anniversary. As icing on the cake, FrieslandCampina also announced with a new sustainability initiative that its coffee milk brand Nutroma - after 50 years in a glass bottle - will be packaged in a 100% recyclable PET bottle* starting this week.

From cooperating farmers to locally anchored multinational in 150 years

Everything began in 1871. That's when independent farmers chose to work together officially for the first time. Hundreds of those cooperatives and private companies were incorporated through collaborations to form today's FrieslandCampina. The dairy company currently has more than 11,400 member dairy farmers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany and is one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world.

Jeroen Van de Broek, Managing Director at FrieslandCampina in Belgium: "We have grown into a modern dairy company, but after 150 years the interests of our member dairy farmers are still paramount. With our quality and sustainability program 'Foqus Planet' we also encourage farmers to make their farms - in terms of carbon footprint, biodiversity and well-being - more sustainable step by step. The majority of Belgian member dairy farmers who supply milk in Aalter have a farm within a radius of 30 kilometers."

Nutroma after 50 years in rPET*: from single-use glass to recycled plastic

As of this week, for the first time in its 50-year history, Nutroma coffee creamer is packaged in a 100% recyclable PET bottle* with a zip-off jacket that encourages consumers to remove the sleeve. This is because it takes much less energy to produce, transport and recycle rPET compared to single-use glass. With this transition from single-use glass to rPET, Nutroma now saves at least 46% of CO2 emissions on packaging material**.

Jeroen Van de Broek: "After the introduction of paper straws and, as recently as June, the uniqueness of being the first Belgian dairy to use 100% recycled PET bottles for Cécémel and Fristi, Nutroma*'s first 100% recyclable bottle is another milestone in making our packaging more sustainable. This initiative also highlights our ambitions to make our packaging fully circular by 2050."

*The rPET bottles of Nutroma Creamy 500ml and 200ml are fully recyclable after removing the sleeve - which is not recyclable - and replacing the cap. The bottle consists of 100% recycled material. The cap and sleeve do not consist of recycled material. The rPET bottle (excluding cap and sleeve) of Nutroma 0% fat 200 ml is made of 89% recycled material because an additional oxygen barrier is needed to protect the product that is sensitive to light. Like the bottle of Nutroma Creamy, the bottle (excluding sleeve) 100% is recyclable if the disposable instruction is followed.

** The bottle of Nutroma Romig 500 ml has a CO2 footprint that is 60% lower than Nutroma Romig 500 ml in glass. The bottle of Nutroma Creamy 200 ml has a CO2 footprint that is 58% lower than Nutroma Creamy 200 ml in glass. The bottle of Nutroma 0% fat 200 ml has a CO2 footprint that is 46% lower than Nutroma 200 ml in glass.

fevia.be / food.be