- Just Eat restaurant partners trial a range of Hellmann’s sauces served in seaweed-based, Notpla sachets
- The flavourless seaweed sachets are 100% biodegradable, reducing single-use plastic waste in takeaways
- Trial is a result of a four-way project between Hellmann’s, Just Eat, Innovate UK and Notpla
Hellmann’s and Just Eat have teamed up to roll out a trial of Notpla’s seaweed sauce sachets to continue tackling plastic pollution across the takeaway sector. The trial, supported by the Innovate UK fund, means that Just Eat customers will now be able to enjoy the great taste of Hellmann’s sauces with zero plastic waste.
During the trial so far, 65 Just Eat restaurant partners have offered a range of Hellmann’s ketchup, BBQ, tartare and garlic sauces served in the seaweed sachets, removing the need for single-use plastic sauce sachets in takeaways. The trial is currently London based with plans to expand to more cities.
The Notpla sachets are made from a seaweed-based material and naturally biodegrade in approximately six weeks. The sustainable sachets are opened just like normal sachets and can be thrown into the home compost or even a normal waste bin, to fully decompose. They are flavourless and colourless, which means the taste of the Hellmann’s sauce is exactly the same as you would find in a plastic sachet – but without the plastic waste.
Just Eat first teamed up with sustainable packaging start-up Notpla to test the sachets with 10 restaurant partners last year. As a result, more than 46,000 plastic ketchup sachets were prevented from entering landfill, receiving positive feedback from customers:
- 92% said they would like to see more of their takeaway sauces coming in the seaweed-based sauce sachets.
- 91% found the sachets as easy or easier to use than a normal sachet.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “The devastating impact of plastic pollution on our natural land and marine environments is all too clear to us, and even something small like a sauce sachet can contribute to this blight.
Through both our landmark Environment Bill and our Resources and Waste Strategy, we’re working to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste and we’ve made real progress - driving down plastic bag use by 90% through the 5p charge, introducing a world-leading ban on microbeads and setting out plans for a deposit return scheme for drinks containers to push up recycling rates.
But we can’t turn the tide on plastic pollution alone, so I’m hugely encouraged to see major brands like Just Eat and Hellmann’s embracing innovative, environmentally-friendly alternatives to significantly cut their use of plastic.”
Hazel Detsiny, VP Marketing Foods & Tea and Managing Director of Unilever Food Solutions, Unilever UK & Ireland said “At Hellmann’s we’re committed to creating a more sustainable future for food – by enhancing taste and reducing waste. From reducing plastic in our packaging to encouraging love for leftovers with our ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ initiative, we continue to test and explore new ways to help people enjoy delicious meals as sustainably as possible.”
“This trial is a great example of collaboration driving game-changing innovation. In partnership with Just Eat and Notpla, we’re creating a new and exciting experience for Just Eat customers who can enjoy the same great tasting Hellmann’s – but with zero plastic waste. Squeezing sauce out of a seaweed sachet will be a first for many, but it’s one small change with potential for big impact.”
Andrew Kenny, Managing Director, Just Eat UK, said: “As market leader, we take our responsibility to affect positive change in the food delivery sector seriously. One of our key areas of focus is helping our 35,700 restaurant partners across the UK reduce plastic pollution. We are delighted to partner with Hellmann’s, a business which shares our commitment to making mealtimes more environmentally-friendly, as we embark upon the next step in bringing these sustainable sachets into the mainstream.
“Our first two trials of the seaweed-based sauce sachets with Notpla received excellent feedback and we were thrilled to be recognised with a highly commended at the Responsible Business Awards for this. It’s great to see more takeaways get on board to help us in our fight against plastic waste.”
Pierre Paslier, co-CEO of Notpla, added: “Takeaway sauce sachets are one of the hardest single use plastics to deal with. They’re easy to litter and have low residual value which limits the recycling potential."
"We’re very excited to work hand in hand with leaders in the takeaway and sauce sectors. Sustainability is a top priority for their consumers and is key for these sectors to survive in the long run. Just Eat and Hellmann’s are pioneering the way to a sustainable takeaway industry. Being partially funded by Innovate UK has been key to the development of our technology, and it clearly shows how vibrant the UK deep-tech scene is.”
Earlier this year Unilever UK & Ireland launched its ‘#GetPlasticWise’ campaign, a holistic approach to rethinking plastic. This launch reflects Unilever’s global commitment to halving its use of virgin plastic, including eliminating 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, collecting and processing more plastic packaging than it sells, and ensuring all of its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable, all by 2025. In the UK and Ireland, Unilever wants to significantly accelerate this progress, as well as make a significant contribution towards the UK Plastics Pact targets.
Last year, Just Eat announced a package of measures to reduce excess plastics used in the UK takeaway sector. In addition to the partnership with Notpla, other measures announced by Just Eat include:
- Just Eat stopped selling single use plastics in its partner shop in March 2018.
- Trialling a pre-ticked box on its app and website to encourage customers to opt out of receiving single use plastic items such as cutlery that they don’t need.
- Working with the Sustainable Restaurant Association to create and distribute a series of resources for restaurants to help them and their customers reduce plastic usage over time.
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About Just Eat
Just Eat plc (LSE: JE) operates a leading global hybrid marketplace for online food delivery. Headquartered in London, we use proprietary technology to offer a quick and efficient digital ordering service for over 27 million customers and more than 112,000 Restaurant Partners (excluding Brazil and Mexico) across the UK, Australia & New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil.
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion consumers a day. It has 161,000 employees and generated sales of €53.7 billion in 2017. Over half (57%) of the company’s footprint is in developing and emerging markets. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes all over the world, including Persil, Dove, Knorr, Domestos, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Wall’s, PG Tips, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and Lynx.
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) underpins the company’s strategy and commits to:
- Helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being by 2020
- Halving the environmental impact of our products by 2030
- Enhancing the livelihoods of millions of people by 2020
The USLP creates value by driving growth and trust, eliminating costs and reducing risks. The company’s sustainable living brands are growing 46% faster than the rest of the business and delivered 70% of the company’s growth in 2017.
Unilever was ranked as an industry leader in the 2018 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In the FTSE4Good Index, it achieved the highest environmental score of 5. It led the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the 2017 GlobeScan/SustainAbility annual survey for the seventh year running, and achieved four A ratings across Climate Change, Water, Forests and Supplier Engagement in CDP's 2018 Global Supply Chain report. Unilever has pledged to become carbon positive in its operations by 2030, and to ensure 100% of its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com. For more information on the USLP: www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/.
About Notpla
Notpla is a sustainable packaging start-up that uses seaweed and other plant extracts to make packaging materials that biodegrade naturally. Our first product, Ooho, is a flexible packaging for liquids that can replace sachets for drinks and condiments. We are now working on new products such as boxes and films to help reduce plastic waste in the take-away and food to go sectors. Please see Notpla.com for more information.