Advancing Circularity, Functionality, and Convenience in Fresh Protein Packaging: The Award-Winning Sainsbury’s PaperSeal™ Shape Tray

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Evolving legislation to control packaging waste and plastic, along with ambitious brand and retailer sustainability goals, has created a need for innovative paperboard packaging solutions across Europe. In addition, consumers are demanding packaging with less plastic — but at the same time, they expect that packaging to deliver the same convenience, performance, and functionality that they’re used to.  
 
For UK retailer Sainsbury’s and its fresh poultry supplier, Pilgrim’s Europe, these challenges created the need to move Sainsbury’s breaded chicken range out of plastic trays and into a paperboard alternative that maintained product protection, shelf-life, operational efficiency, and consumer appeal.   

A Circular Solution

As the PaperSeal™ Shape tray reduces plastic by 72-82% per tray, the project has resulted in the elimination of approximately 300 metric tonnes of plastic a year from Sainsbury’s supply chain. It’s comprised of nearly 90% renewable raw materials, and is recyclable in household waste streams according to the UK’s OPRL recycling guidelines.

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A Functional Solution

A common barrier to the adoption of paperboard packaging as a replacement for plastic is the capital cost and potential impacts on operational efficiency. To overcome this, PaperSeal Shape was designed to run on plastic tray filling and sealing equipment at the same speeds as plastic trays. It’s also quick to switch between plastic and PaperSeal Shape, further enhancing flexibility for Pilgrim’s Europe.

PaperSeal Shape was also designed to perform through the supply chain. The double flange construction delivers a rigid tray with excellent hermetic seal integrity, ensuring the trays and their fresh contents reach Sainsbury’s in great condition.

A Convenient Solution

From the consumer’s perspective, the PaperSeal Shape tray delivers equivalent performance to Sainsbury’s previous plastic tray. Research shows that consumers overwhelmingly prefer paperboard packaging to plastic, with “easy to recycle” cited as the most important feature (ProCarton,2025). Because the tray contains less than 10% plastic, it can be recycled with the barrier liner in place, enhancing convenience for the consumer and promoting recycling compliance.

Award-Winning Recognition

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The Grocer New Product and Packaging Awards 2024

The Grocer is the UK’s leading source of grocery retail news, analysis, and insight, covering supermarkets, food and drink brands, and the wider FMCG sector and their packaging awards recognize product and packaging innovations within this sector. Paperseal Shape for Sainsbury’s won Bronze in the Eco Pack of the Year category.

Paperboard Packaging Competition 2025

Hosted by the Paperboard Packaging Council, this competition has recognized innovation in paperboard packaging for more than eight decades. The PaperSeal Shape tray for Sainsbury’s won a Gold Award in Sustainability.

Environmental Packaging Awards 2025

The Environmental Packaging Awards bring together the most innovative minds and impactful projects in sustainable packaging in the UK and Europe. The PaperSeal Shape tray was awarded Gold in the Chilled/Frozen category. 

AmeriStar Awards 2025

The AmeriStar awards, hosted by the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP), celebrate the very best in design innovation from around the globe, inviting packaging teams to put their creativity in the spotlight.  

PaperSeal Shape won the Sustainable Packaging category award.

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Looking to the Future

The PaperSeal Shape tray demonstrates how circularity, operational excellence, and consumer appeal can go hand in hand. Its design not only meets the rigorous demands of Sainsbury’s supply chain but also significantly advances circularity by eliminating 300 metric tonnes of plastic and ensuring recyclability.

The journey from initial challenge to award-winning pack is a testament to the power of collaborative innovation.