Chilean food producer chooses compostable flex pack for wheatgrass beverage

Chilean health food producer Soy Silvestre, founded by Cristi Castro, has been offering health supplements based on natural ingredients for the last eight years. The company’s ethos has been to promote connection with nature and healthy habits.  

Wheatgrass shots constitute an important part of Soy Silvestre’s offerings and were previously packaged in 30ml plastic pots, wrapped by hand. Today, the company has adopted compostable flexible packaging to protect this product and its nutritional content. Liquid products are notoriously difficult to pack, particularly in compostable packaging. 

The packaging structure is provided by Green Heart Solutions, a Chilean packaging converter that offers a range of compostable packaging products. The structure for Soy Silvestre includes a high-barrier cellulose NatureFlex™ film layer sourced from Futamura, laminated to another biofilm for hermeticity. It allows Soy Silvestre to produce small flexible sachets. 

The new product enables automated packaging and protects the fragile product through its lifecycle: from the wrapping of the liquid product to the freezing stage, through distribution and then the defrosting process. Not only is the product protected for its four-month shelf life, but the sachets are also compostable, allowing Soy Silvestre to align the packaging to its sustainable business model and reduce its environmental impact. Green Heart Solutions compostable sachet complies with PUSU law No. 21368 (single-use plastics law in Chile), and has home and industrial composting certifications, awarded by BPI, Dincertco and TUV.  

This innovation has been recognized during the Circlepack – Viva Packaging 2024 fair (CENEM) in April, an event during which Green Heart Solutions was awarded second place in the food packaging category for its development of film into sachets.  

Ziomara Ferrer of Green Heart Solutions commented: ‘We are very proud of our award from Circlepack – Viva Packaging 2024. About five years ago, we discovered Futamura's NatureFlex films. They are derived from responsibly managed, renewable wood pulp, and can then be composted into nutrients for soils, creating a complete circular lifecycle for many products. The films are very versatile, with barriers to humidity and fats, and maintain flavors and aromas. They can be laminated with certified biopolymers to achieve strong hermetic seals and additional properties for more complex applications. It has been truly gratifying to be able to achieve the developments we have today. Wrapping fresh juice is one of these challenges that we are delighted to have solved.’