Technology and the environment

The growing concern of communities and people towards the environment means that today, when choosing products, the ecological impact a product has had plays a fundamental role in whether it ends up in your cart. This applies both to the food itself and to the packaging it comes in. We take great care in reducing the environmental implications of our activities and responding to and anticipating market demands, so we have decided to choose types of packaging that are as environmentally friendly as possible for our products.

Download Integrated quality, safety and environment policies

Tetra Pak® for drinks and tomato-based products
For our drinks and tomato-based products, we mainly use Tetra Pak® packaging. Its weight is made up of 75% paper, a recyclable raw material.

Furthermore, Tetra Pak® is committed to ensuring that 100% of the cardboard used for its cartons comes from certified sources. So, it can guarantee equitable forest management from an environmental, social and economic point of view, thanks to the FSC standard. Find out more.

What’s more, thanks to their reduced weight and shape, Tetra Pak® packaging allows for great efficiency in terms of transport, thus reducing CO2 emissions, and optimizing the space on the shelves of stores.

With regard to waste disposal, furthermore, once the product has been consumed, the Tetra Pak® containers can be recycled according to the different methods of separated recycling collection provided by the resident Municipality.

The compostable bag for frozen vegetables

Our frozen vegetables come packaged in innovative fully compostable packets, Ok Compost-certified according to the UNI EN 13432: 2002 standard by TÜV Austria. It is made of bioplastic, which can be disposed of using the organic waste collection boxes.

Reducing energy and water consumption, limiting production waste, increasing production efficiency: our commitment to the environment, as well as through the use of packaging with reduced environmental impact, is expressed through a global vision, aimed at making all business processes more and more sustainable, as detailed in our Sustainability Report.

Our water resource

Our water usage system, for example used in the supply of electricity and natural gas, is strongly influenced by the different seasons, and has a higher concentration from May to October, when there is a higher flow of produce from the country for fresh product manufacturing.
Also with regard to this resource of water, which the future of the planet relies on, we operate in a responsible manner, using investments to improve efficiency and sustainability.
The new water purifier made in Alfonsine allowed us to recover about 166 000 cubic meters of water and to emit 510 000 cubic meters (with possibilities of increasing this up to 750 000 cubic meters) in 2021.
Thanks to the company water purification plant, some of the outgoing clarified water is recovered and reused – after being filtered and sanitized – for processes such as the cleaning of certain areas and equipment. The management of the Larino plant also takes place according to procedures established in the Environmental Management System.

Electrical energy consumption

Furthermore, our commitment to a responsible usage of environmental resources has resulted in significant energy efficiency interventions carried out among refrigeration units, and departments in the Alfonsine plant, which have enabled us to significantly reduce energy consumption.

With the same objective, both in the Larino and Alfonsine plants, we carried out a relamping project which involved the replacement of all lamps used in production, in the warehouse premises and storage rooms, with LED technology. Furthermore, for rooms that do not require a continuous presence of staff, LED technology has been implemented, combined with time and attendance systems, in order to limit the lighting of the lamps to only the times it is needed.

Methane consumption

We have chosen to use methane gas to fuel our thermal plants due to its high combustion efficiency and the lower impact it has on the emission of the main pollutants into the atmosphere. The energy generated by our plants in the form of high pressure steam is used to cook vegetables before freezing, the pasteurization and sterilization processes for the production of nectars, juices, fruit/vegetable drinks, tomato pulp and passata sauces, and for grilling the vegetables in the special ovens.

The cogeneration plant

Among our most significant investments towards energy efficiency is the 2017 construction of the cogeneration plant at the Alfonsine site which, in the first year of activity, enabled us to:

  • produce 30% of the electricity needed for the operation of the plant in 2019-2021;
  • generate part of the steam needed for production cycles;
  • recover heat for the water heating used in office heating processes;
  • optimize the energy efficiency of the plant thanks to the combined efficiency of electric and thermal energy, greater than it would have been separated.

Fruttagel is the beneficiary of an approved project based on the Emilia-Romagna RDP 2014-2020 Operation Type 4.2.01. Click here for more information.

Fruttagel is the beneficiary of an approved project based on the PSR Molise 2014-2020 Misura 4 Sottomisura 4.2. Click here for more information.