NATIVIA® Films Designed to be Home Compostable for Ready to Eat

The food service and ready‑meal market is characterized by the widespread use of single‑use packaging for fresh and ready‑to‑eat food, particularly in the HORECA, canteen, and catering channels. These applications are often heavily contaminated by food residues and are therefore difficult to manage at end of life, especially when they require material separation or cleaning operations prior to disposal. In parallel, the European regulatory framework (PPWR) is introducing increasingly stringent restrictions on single‑use plastic packaging, pushing the market toward alternative solutions that simplify waste management and respond to growing sustainability expectations from operators and consumers.​

Challenge

Applications for ready meals and fresh food intended for consumption in the HORECA sector present a dual challenge. On the one hand, packaging is frequently highly contaminated with food and therefore poorly suited to conventional recycling systems; on the other hand, upcoming regulatory restrictions limit the use of single‑use plastic packaging for these applications. The challenge is to develop a solution that ensures food safety, seal integrity, and product visibility, while at the same time simplifying end‑of‑life management and avoiding the need to separate components or clean packaging from food residues.

Solution

Taghleef Industries, in cooperation with Corapack, proposes an alternative to traditional trays for ready meals and fresh food, based on a top lid made with NATIVIA® D823 film. NATIVIA® D823 is a biaxially oriented PBSA‑based film (poly(butylenesuccinate‑co‑adipate)), designed for home compostability.​

The solution combines a compostable, lacquered molded fiber tray with a transparent NATIVIA® D823 lidding film at 35 µm thickness, heat‑sealable on one side, featuring ultra‑low minimum sealing temperature (MST) and high seal integrity. The system is compatible with existing high‑speed packaging lines and enables a structure designed to be disposed of in the organic waste stream, without the need for material separation.

Benefits

• Renewable resources​

NATIVIA® D823 is a biaxially oriented PBSA‑based film belonging to the NATIVIA® PLUS family, developed from biobased and biodegradable polyesters. Compared with fossil‑based plastic solutions, the use of PBSA contributes to reducing reliance on fossil resources and provides alternative end‑of‑life options for single‑use food packaging applications​

• Designed to be Home Compostable

NATIVIA® D823 is designed for home compostability and is particularly suitable for applications heavily contaminated with food. When combined with a compostable molded fiber tray, the structure allows the entire packaging to be disposed of inorganic waste, without the need for cleaning or separating components by the end user, where permitted by local regulations.

• Functional performance for ready‑to‑eat food

NATIVIA® D823 offers high seal integrity and good mechanical properties, making it suitable for high‑speed packaging machines and a wide range of applications. Film transparency ensures product visibility, while the breathability of the structure supports moisture management, making it suitable both for ready meals consumed within the day and for fresh food and single‑portion applications.