Sustainable Food Packaging for Airline Meals

In-flight meals are a vital part of the customer experience on commercial flights. Airlines invest substantial resources into conception and preparation of meals, dedicating entire departments to menu design. The goal is to create satisfaction through tasty, nutritious and diverse cuisine options despite the challenges of serving thousands of meals a day on cramped aircraft.

With food quality being so critical, the packaging also takes on heightened importance. Materials must meet exacting standards to avoid leaks, collapses or temperature issues. At the same time, sustainability rises as a priority for both airlines and environmentally aware customers. Calculations estimate over 100 million in-flight meals are consumed globally per day. Packaging for such immense volume has an outsized environmental impact if not properly managed. 

The Environmental Impact of Common Packaging Materials

The most ubiquitous materials for airline meal trays are aluminum and plastic derivatives. Aluminum requires immense energies to extract from bauxite and refine versus production of plastics from crude oil or natural gas. An aluminum tray can weigh over twice that of a plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) tray. Higher mass means greater emissions from transportation in a sector where fuel usage and carbon impacts are already sky-high.

That said, plastics also pose sustainability issues, especially multi-layer trays that hinder separability, undermining recyclability. Landfilling is unacceptable given environmental accumulation. Incineration solves nothing, instead transferring plastics' embedded carbon into atmospheric emissions. Clearly better options are mandatory.

The Benefits of Mono-Material PET Trays

MCP has engineered an innovative single-material tray made purely of crystallized PET (CPET) plastic. Unlike multi-layer trays, CPET enables straightforward recycling within established PET recycling streams. MCP utilizes up to 70% post-consumer recycled PET content (PCR) from used soda bottles and other products. This further boosts sustainability metrics through circular lifecycle approaches.

Reducing the Trays' Thickness and Carbon Footprint

We've additionally pioneered methods to minimize tray thickness and material usage without compromising structural integrity. Thinner trays mean using less plastic. Lower thickness and weight also cut carbon emissions by making shipping and transport more efficient. All this is achieved while retaining the excellent functionality of our trays. Our aviation tray range comes in various colors, including non-pigmented options that simplify recycling by eliminating the need to sort trays by color first.

Customizable Trays Fit for Every Meal

Our airline trays provide additional advantages as well. We can supply trays precision-sized to fit available carts and configurable to client specifications. Whether cold fruit plates for breakfast or hot chicken and pasta for lunch, one well-designed tray suits all in-flight meals.

Withstand Temperatures from Freezing to Heating 

The versatility to withstand diverse temperatures is key. Our trays maintain dimensional stability from freezer to microwave oven without distortion, collapse or leaking. This flexibility allows streamlined meal preparation and service using a single tray type. 

Customized Solutions for Challenging Demands

MCP's dedicated technological team possesses the expertise to provide trays tailored for diverse sterilization processes, including the demanding Retort method. With a keen focus on customization, we excel in crafting trays with intricate geometries, such as 3-compartment designs. Whether it's ensuring optimal performance under rigorous sterilization conditions or meeting unique packaging requirements, our team is committed to delivering solutions that exceed expectations. 

More Sustainable Designs Coming Soon

We are actively developing and testing exciting new airline tray shapes, sizes and configurations with sustainability as a driving priority. Stay tuned for more earth-friendly meal packaging innovations from MCP!