Kockens
News! Rainforest Alliance certified black pepper
We are proud to be the first brand to introduce Rainforest Alliance certification for all of our conventional black pepper. This is a step in the right direction in improving our products and our range from a sustainability perspective.
Josefin Sohl
Organic, Fairtrade spices
Our ambition is to always choose Fairtrade certified raw materials where possible. This guarantees the spices have been grown with concern for both the environment and the grower’s social conditions and security. By choosing both organic and Fairtrade we reduce our impact and contribute to a sustainable balance in the world.
We already have a wide organic range that we have supplemented this year with Smoked Paprika. We also launched our first Rainforest Alliance certified product – black pepper. Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization that works to create a better future for people and nature through responsible entrepreneurship.
Spices from across the world
Our spices and other ingredients come from all over the planet, and it’s becoming increasingly important for the consumer to know their origins. So when we redesigned the packaging we made the source of our raw materials more transparent, marking the labels/bags with the country of origin.
Kockens’ future-smart packaging solutions
Our packaging design is always based on strict demands for our products to be long-lasting through protection against contamination by moisture and dirt, and against impacts during transport and handling. It is also important for the packaging to be functional for the user, easy to open, and easy to use. Our goal for packaging for the Kockens brand is also to gradually move towards a reduced climate impact, and for it to be possible to recover the materials in all Kockens packaging by 2025.
At Kockens, we constantly work to improve our packaging and to find future solutions in close collaboration with our packaging suppliers. Different packaging solutions have different challenges. Without compromising on our basic requirements, we work to reduce the carbon footprint from our packaging through a range of measures. This is an important aspect in further reinforcing our positioning as the green brand.
- Reduce the quantity of packaging material
- Pallet-adapted packaging to streamline transport
- Use bio-based or recycled plastic
- Facilitate recycling with mono-materials, separability, etc.
Something new is growing at Kockens
In recent years, there has been constant news of Kockens’ new climate packaging. A weight reduction and more recycled glass in the spice jars, bio-based plastic in lids, and only recycled plastic in the slightly larger medium plastic container.
This year, we have continued the journey by investing in a new packaging machine, where we can pack in paperboard and monoplastic, in line with the 2025 Plastic Initiative. We are also working towards replacing black plastic in packaging to facilitate recycling, because sorting facilities struggle to sort black plastic.
2025 Plastic Initiative
The Kockens brand is a member of DLF’s “2025 Plastic Initiative”. This means that, together with colleagues within the food industry, we strive to push development towards the circular economy in accordance with the EU commission’s launch of “A European strategy for plastics in a circular economy” in January 2018. The aim of the initiative is that by 2025 it will be possible for the plastic packaging placed on the market by members, and which is covered by producer responsibility legislation, to be reused in new products.
