How food safe is your food packaging?

Robert van der Laan of Mediane has been around for a while in the world of packaging materials for fruit and vegetables and in particular the conical covers. After all those years it continues to surprise him that growers are not always interested in the food safety of their packaging materials. Robert: "One produces plants, but ultimately sells food. Every company that produces, processes and transports foodstuffs must legally ensure food safety. Growers are fully committed to growing fresh and healthy products in a sustainable and safe way. Therefore, it should be obvious that the packaging material for the food must also be safe."

Going into detail, Robert believes that the first question from the grower to the packaging supplier should be whether this BRC or HACCP is ISO certified. "With a BRC certification, the grower is assured that laws and regulations and product safety as well as product liability are met. In the United Kingdom, for example, without a BRC certificate our packaging would not even be in the shops of say Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys or Morrisons. In retail in other EU countries, the overview and control on where and from who the grower purchases his packaging materials is lacking or done to a lesser degree. That is very odd, indeed."

Mediane produces flowpack foil, laminates and covers and bags made of clear transparent foils (both traditional plastics and bio-based foils), printed in High-Definition Flexo. Mediane was founded in 1992 by Robert. Nowadays they supply the foils to all European countries. Mediane serves the North American market and Canada through its own sales office and warehouse in Richmond (VA), Mediane North America LLC. Under BRC (HACCP) ISO control, Mediane produces more than 1.5 billion bags for various applications under one roof. Recently an investment was made in macro perforation and in Q2 this year we will start with the production of laminated foils.

At the sales office of Mediane in Utrecht (Vleuten), a small sales team is working hard to achieve that. They are supported by a well-organized system. They fully utilize all online possibilities, so that customers receive real-time information about their orders and everything related. From booking the order through the webshop to the approval of the artwork, the following of the delivery plan, order history, PDF, certificates ... everything can be arranged online by the customer himself. The operating system supports Mediane optimally and focuses on the customer as well as providing service.