Cool Blue is a genuine green revolution
This month Young's Seafood has started using a revolutionary new form of packaging for its salmon which it is estimated will reduce carbon emissions by around 78%.*
Young's has historically received fresh salmon from suppliers in polystyrene boxes - handling around 1 million such boxes each year. Now, in partnership with a new firm in Grimsby, the company is piloting a 'green' alternative - called Cool Blue Box.
The Cool Blue Box is made from lightweight food grade polypropylene that can be sterilised at high temperature and so repeatedly re-used. It is cooled by a reservoir of food-safe gel in the lid which can be refrozen to at least -40°C. Because the method requires very little ice, there's more room for more salmon in each box - which in turn means that up to 4 tonnes of extra fish can be transported in each 40ft lorry. Once emptied, the boxes are collected and returned to a local washing facility for sterilisation before re-use.
Young's manufacturing controller, Tam Muldoon, has been managing the project. "Cool Blue has enormous environmental and quality benefits for us," he explains. "It reduces carbon, eliminates waste and is better for the quality of the fish. Plus, because the boxes are micro chipped and can be scanned, we get more detailed traceability information with less paperwork."
Cool Blue Box has invested £1.8million in the manufacture of 100,000 boxes so far. Managing director of the firm, Steve Moore, says, "We are absolutely delighted that Young's has shown the vision to help us pioneer this project and make it a reality. Cool Blue Box has many advantages, but the biggest of these by far is the reduction in carbon emissions. Using the Carbon Trust's methodology we have calculated this to be as much as a 78% reduction when compared with traditional polystyrene boxes."
Mike Parker, deputy CEO of Young's adds, "I am tremendously impressed with the potential of this project. It is a greener solution all round - and hopefully we're witnessing the beginning of the end for the polystyrene fish box, which would be a massive environmental revolution for the whole seafood industry."
* As calculated in an independent analysis carried out by for Cool Blue Box by Robert Giddings BSc and William Davies BSc of the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, overseen by Professor Mike Dillon.
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Note to Editors
Polystyrene boxes with ice have been the principal means of transporting fresh fish for about 20 years, since they replaced wooden fish boxes. Around 35 million such boxes are used each year in the UK seafood industry. They require a lot of energy to produce and can only be used once before disposal, which is a significant waste issue for the fish industry. Polystyrene also requires the use of a lot of ice, which can damage both the texture and colour of the fish.
Young's is the UK's leading seafood company, supplying about 40% of the seafood consumed in the UK each year. It is vocal and active in the drive for seafood sustainability, sourcing all its fish according to its 'Ten Principles of Responsible Fish Procurement and also making over 80% of all the products currently available in the UK that are certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). It won two major awards in 2007, the Seafish Award for Outstanding Achievement and the IGD Award for Environmental Sustainability. More information at www.youngsseafood.co.uk.
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